I need more.  I need it all.

If I don’t get all of him soon I don’t think I can hold onto sanity.  I want him so bad I can’t see straight.

But I want this first.

When our lips touch, it’s soft, tentative, contradicting the frantic hunger ready to bust right through his pants and take me where I stand.  I move my hand lower to cup the hard outline of him and he inhales sharply.  Yet the kiss remains tender.  His tongue slides against mine in a slow dance that’s sweet agony.

The very first time he kissed me I knew that kiss would be the gold standard forever.  Until this moment it was.  I’m lost in this kiss and I don’t ever want to be found.

But there’s a more primitive part of me that can’t take it anymore.  My hips start rocking against him in rhythm, mad for relief.  When his hands leave my face and travel between my legs I groan into his mouth.  I’m grabbing at his shirt, pulling it up and running my fingers along hard, smooth muscle that never ends.

Oz breaks free and pulls back. His eyes are blazing and he yanks his shirt over his head with one fluid motion.

“Wait,” he growls when my trembling fingers begin to undo my own shirt.   His hands cover mine and his deft fingers go right to work.  “That’s my job.”

He’s quick and sure, sliding the fabric down as he runs his lips along my right shoulder.

“Oz,” I breathe, reaching for his pants.

The sight of his dick straining to be released is hypnotic.  Every muscle between my legs twitches expectantly. I’ve never needed anything so much.

Oz is in charge right now though.  He flashes a sexy, knowing grin and carries me the short distance to the bed.  Once he’s got me on my back he gets between my legs, circles my waist with his big hands and rolls his thumbs over my belly.

“We’ll get there, Ren.  But first you’re going to hear this.”  His strong thumbs travel lower and lower until I gasp, then bite my lip, trying to compel my body to stop writhing in the most wanton manner.

He’s doing it on purpose, teasing the hell out of the most sensitive place I own and stopping short of letting me get too close.  I raise my hips, straining wildly against his fingers.  I’m so ready I swear I could come if he would just finish sliding my shorts down.  He smiles at my struggle, content to tease until he decides I’m ready.

Then his smile fades and his mood grows intense once more.

“A long time ago I fell hard for you, Loren Savage.  I never really got up again.  I don’t want to rehash how we hurt each other and why.  I just want us to have a future.”

He holds my gaze while he slowly runs his hands up over my belly and over my breasts, gently tugging the straps of my bra down before nimbly unhooking the back.

“Our future is here,” he whispers, leaning forward and lightly kissing my chest, just above my heart.  “And here.”  He moves up to my mouth and kisses me with furious passion.  When my arms pull him closer he backs off, grins at me wickedly and moves down my body.  He slides my shorts off with excruciating leisure before tugging my panties down with his teeth.  While I’m biting my tongue and trying to stifle the urge to buck my hips like a lust-starved nympho, he flashes me a grin that says he knows all about my desperation.

“And here,” he whispers before sliding his tongue inside me for one final, unbearable torment.  I nearly scream when he withdraws.  But screaming won’t give me what I want.

Instead, I get right up on my knees, flatten my palms against his chest and push him back.  Since Oz is likely ten times stronger than I am he could stop me easily but he lets me straddle him.  He also lets me do whatever I need to do to get his pants open and his dick released.  We lock eyes and I bend forward.  When I get my mouth on him a groan rips out of his throat and his hands press the back of my head.  I lick the shaft and teasingly suck my way to the sweet spot.  Slowly I slide my lips over him until the tip of his cock touches the back of my throat.  That’s when he stops me.

“No,” he demands in a half strangled voice. “I need to watch your face, Ren.  I need to watch you the entire time.”

Oz lifts me with one hand while searching through his pants with the other.  He extracts a condom and gets it rolled on before pulling my legs around him once more and gripping my ass, kneading the flesh.

Our bare chests press together and we stare into each other’s eyes.  He isn’t inside me yet.  I feel him; so hard, impatient, ready to enter.  I’m just as impatient.  I’m aching to stretch wide enough and take all of him inside.

We pause in the same breath.  We are frozen together, an inch away from joining.  His heartbeat is right there, right on the other side of mine.

My fingertips trail lightly along his square, rugged jaw.

“I love you, Oz.  Not just for what we were.  But for what we are now.  For everything we’re going to be.”

He grabs my hand and kisses it lightly, the sexiest of gentlemen.

“I love you too, Ren.  I never stopped.  I never will.”

Then he drops my hand, grips my hips and slides into me hard. I’m wrapped around him so tightly I can’t imagine ever letting go.

We go slowly the first time.  We ravage each other the second time and the time after that.   We fall sleep in each other’s arms.

And when we wake up we start doing it all over again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

OZ

 

They are leaving.  I’d be a two-faced prick if I said I was sorry to see them go.  I’m not.  I’ve been counting down to this day.  Since the crew seems a little behind schedule, I join Monty in scouring the property for cameras, screwdriver in hand.  Cate Camp does her bouncy-titted run over to the house, trying to stop me.

“Don’t rip them out, Oz!  Just cover them with something for now.  Remember, Season Two is likely to start in the spring.”

I ignore her and successfully remove the camera mounted on the wall behind the kitchen sink.  She scowls when I hold out the electronic souvenir so I just toss it on the table and move on.

The rest of the crew really isn’t so bad.  They’re just guys with cameras trying to get a job done.  It’s just that I don’t like being the job.

Rash is carefully packing up the van.  He waves as I exit the house and head for the barn.  I wave back.  We already did our handshake thing.  I don’t see any reason to do it again.

Sometimes I get an uneasy feeling about what’s still on the horizon.  After all, Gary and friends can do whatever they want with all this footage.  That’s what it means to be at the mercy of someone else’s project.  I remember scoffing to Brock that I couldn’t give a wad of armpit hair what they turned me into for the sake of ratings.   I feel differently now.  Not because I’m looking out for my reputation.  But because I don’t want this whole thing to kill theirs.   I’m not just talking about Ren.  I’m talking about the rest of them too.  In a roundabout way I’ve finally started thinking of them as my family.

Ava and Alden are out in the yard feeding the chickens.   It’s the kid’s favorite thing to do.  I stop by and throw a fist full of cornmeal in the air.  It scatters everywhere, the chickens lose their peck-happy minds and Alden laughs so hard he plunks right down in the dirt.  There’s no other option but to laugh just as hard.

“Best sound in the world.”

She has managed to sneak right up on me.  She has a talent for doing that. Ren stands there on the other side of the chicken coop looking like a million gold bucks with loose hair, cutoff shorts and a peasant-style top that has just enough of a see-thru quality to get my gears moving.

“Best view in the world,” I counter, joining her on the other side of the gate. We start walking hand in hand and when we’re beyond the caretaker’s house, no one else in sight, we stop.