Page 60 of Mine to Hold
“I don’t understand.” I glanced back at my classroom, seeing that Teddy had settled all the children down but knowing that they were going to start painting the walls soon if I didn’t get back in there. No pigtails would be safe. “I’m being serious, Colt. I know you’re not back in Rockdale to sell ice cream, so why are you here?”
“I’m moving back.” He closed the distance between us in two long strides and cupped my cheek in his hand. “I’ve come home and I’m here to stay, Emma. My jet-setting days are over. Since my sister pointed out that I could be successful at anything, I thought I’d try selling ice cream again. Malcolm wants his truck back in an hour, though, so I doubt it’s a career that’s going to stick, but I could also be a fireman if you’d like. Or work at your school. Whatever it takes, as long as I can be near you.”
My heart lurched and bounced up into my throat, my head spinning as I looked back at him. “You’re back? For good?”
“Yep,” he said happily. “I’ve got to get back on my route and I know you need to finish your class, but I’ll meet you back at your house later. Then we can talk.”
Part of me wasn’t really expecting him to be there when I got home, but as I drove up, I saw him sitting on my front steps. Still in his shorts and T-shirt, he was holding a cone in one hand and had the other casually braced on my porch.
“It’s about time you came home,” he said when I got out of the car. “Your ice cream is melting.”
I took the dripping cone from him, leaning in to lick around the edge to keep the milky goo from spilling on the ground. His eyes filled with heat as he watched me, but I laughed and held up my hand.
“Whoa there. You said you were coming over so we could talk.”
He stood up, towering over me as he pressed his body into mine. His gaze was glued to my lips as I closed them over the ice cream. “I’m back in Rockdale. I’m not going anywhere. I came here for you and I’m suddenly really craving that cone. Can we talk about the rest later?”
“You came here for me and you’re staying?” I asked, too scared to hope that it could be true, but when he nodded and I saw nothing but sincerity shining from his eyes, I decided that maybe we could talk about the rest later.
Taking Colt’s hand, I led him inside. The door hadn’t even fully closed behind us before he spun me back into him, his mouth coming for mine just a second later. Things had always burned so hot between us once we were finally behind closed doors that it was no surprise that it escalated so fast now, and even though I had so many questions for him, he’d already answered the most important ones.
He’d come back to Rockdale for me and for good. For now, that was enough. He was here, he was back, and he was staying. Teddy had been right after all. Only a little over a week ago, I’d never thought he would really come home, and yet, here he was.
As if I needed to convince myself he was real, I ran my free hand underneath his shirt, feeling the warmth of his skin as I tried to remember why I couldn’t use my other hand.Oh, right. The ice cream.
A thought suddenly occurred to me.We have a melting ice cream and we’re not sneaking around anymore.
Back in high school, Colt had told me once that there were so many creative things he wanted to do with me with the ice cream. But we’d always held back because we’d known it’d be sticky and messy, and we hadn’t been able to risk it.
Whenever we’d managed to make out at one of our houses, we’d been too careful about getting caught. If my parents came home or Teddy came over and he’d been in my shower, I wouldn’t have been able to come up with a plausible explanation as to why he hadn’t gone to shower at his own house. The same had been true for me getting caught showering at their place.
But now? It’s a whole different ballgame.
“Do you remember that you told me once, in explicit detail, what you’d rather be doing with the ice cream instead of just watching me eat it?”
He tensed against me, his body practically vibrating with need as he nodded and replied between kisses. “Sure. I fucking fantasized about it enough times that I’ll never be able to forget it. Why?”
“We have an ice cream,” I murmured, breaking away from his lips to take another lick of it when I felt it dripping over my fingers. “Care to turn any of those fantasies into reality?”
“Fuck yes.” He growled his response, dragging me to my bedroom and undressing himself in thirty seconds flat when we got there.
After peeling my clothes off next, he pushed me back on the bed and proceeded to drive me absolutely crazy, drizzling the melting snack all over my body before he kissed it off again. It was cool on my skin and I shivered when it trickled into all the warm nooks and crannies between my legs, but then I moaned when he mopped it all up with his mouth.
As much as I was definitely going to have to wash these sheets, it was so worth it. Once the differing sensations of heat and cold in my most private places had driven me to the edge of insanity, Colt’s tongue finally sent me skyrocketing over it.
“Next time, I’m not letting you have all the fun,” I murmured between labored breaths as my orgasm subsided, pulling him up and hooking my ankles together behind his ass. “There might be something to the idea of you selling ice cream again. If you buy the truck, we’ll have a never-ending supply.”
“I’ll speak to Malcolm about it tomorrow,” he joked, or at least, I thought he was joking, but then it didn’t matter anymore because he was putting on a condom and sinking into me. My toes curled and my eyes crossed, it felt so good.
It wasn’t just physical, though. That felt great too, but knowing that he’d come back for me and that I might get to have him in my life? Nothing would ever beat that. I was still worried about the answers to all those questions I hadn’t asked him yet, but I pushed all that to the back of my mind.
Colt was here, in Rockdale, and apparently, he was staying. We could figure the rest out later. We’d have the time to do that now that he was back.
39
COLT
Emma’s eyes never left mine, and it was my name on her lips as she moaned. My body moved with hers as she writhed underneath me. In that moment, she was all mine, and hopefully soon, she would be mine from here on out.
