Sealed With A Kiss: Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild, page 24
“That too,” Rosalie agreed. “And when I need heavy boxes down from the attic and Michael’s at work. And when there’s a family of possums camping out under my front porch. And when he’s in need of some doukounou.”
“Which will be often,” Armand inputted.
“Right,” Rosalie said, pointing her spoon at her husband. “But tonight?” she asked Naomi. “No. You need time with him alone.”
Naomi’s throat had tightened when her grandmother said that Donovan should be here on his birthday. Yes. He should. He deserved to have a big family gathering and people who loved him celebrating that. Had he had a birthday party in all the years since his parents had died? Suddenly she needed to know that. And needed to throw him a huge party on his next one.
She studied her grandparents. Her mom and dad would be over for dinner soon. Michael would stop by as well. This was their usual. She’d kept her past boyfriends away from all of this because…it had felt like too much involvement. Too many people getting too many feelings mixed up. But maybe she’d underestimated her family. Maybe she hadn’t needed to be quite so stringent about the boundaries between her romantic relationships and her family and friends.
Or maybe Donovan had just changed her perspective on everything.
Or maybe Donovan was just the first that she actually wanted involved with the rest of her life.
Because she definitely wanted this for Donovan. He’d been alone for so long. He needed to have people in his life, feeling things for him, mixed up in the things he was doing, giving him their opinions—for better or worse—because they cared.
And yes, throwing him parties.
But right now? Yes, she absolutely wanted him to herself. Not because she wanted to keep him away from all of this but because…she wanted him very, very involved in all of this. And she needed to tell him that. While they were naked. After a lot more kissing.
She leaned in and bussed her grandmother’s cheek. “Thank you.”
“We won’t wait up,” Rosalie said with a wink.
Naomi gave her a grin and started for the door with a plan for how to actually get alone time with Donovan.
It was a good thing she’d gotten comfortable climbing around on roofs.
Donovan heard the tapping on his window but it took him a second to realize that it wasn’t a branch or even a bird. Though why a bird would have been tapping on his window he didn’t know.
He got up from the bed where he’d been reclined reading. He pulled back the curtain. Then immediately shoved the window up.
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked Naomi. He removed the screen and reached through the window, wrapping a hand around her upper arm and tugging her inside.
She laughed as she tumbled over the windowsill and up against his chest. “Well, that wasn’t much more graceful than when I went through the window in Mobile.”
He shook his head and wrapped one arm around her while he reached to push the window back down. “Climbing on roofs is going to be a regular thing now?”
Her hands were flat on his chest, her body pressed against his. She looked up at him. “Maybe,” she said, her voice husky.
Donovan certainly didn’t do anything to put space between them. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I realized that I could come through the front door. It’s not like Charlie and Griffin would care if I was up here with you. But I also realized they might want to talk. Or have the four of us sit around and have a beer or something.”
“And you don’t actually like my brother and his girlfriend?” Donovan asked with a smile.
“I wanted you to myself.”
Heat and want kicked him in the gut. “Oh, yeah?”
“You mentioned spreading me out on your bed and keeping me here all night and I haven’t been able to think about anything else. I nearly ruined the poulet aux noix tonight.”
“I have no idea what that is, but I’m guessing that’s a big deal.”
“You are a big deal.”
She wasn’t teasing with him tonight. Her eyes and her tone were serious and Donovan felt emotion tighten his chest.
“My family has guessed that I’m in love with you. And they want you to come over for things like birthdays and holidays and to help my grandmother with things from time to time and to play checkers with Armand and video games with Andre.”
Donovan felt his throat tighten too and he had to swallow twice before he said, “I’d love that.”
A part of him wanted to head over there right this minute. He wanted to eat Rosalie’s food and play checkers and hang out with Andre, Armand, and Michael right now.
But a bigger part of him was very aware that, for the first time since the storm, he had Naomi all to himself. No one knew they were here together. They didn’t need to be anywhere else. And the door to his bedroom locked.
He ran his hands up and down her back. “You could have called me and asked me to come over.”
She nodded. “But turns out, I don’t have to keep you a secret to have time alone with you. I just have to say that I want you to myself. They get it.”
“And you want time alone with me now?”
“So much that I even snuck over here on foot, cutting through the yards instead of using the sidewalk, and climbed up the tree outside your window and came in through your window so none of our friends would know I was here because I don’t want to share you.”
Her hands were running up and down his arms and Donovan felt his skin getting tighter and hotter.
“You don’t think they would understand alone time? They all love alone time with their significant others.”
“They do. But they all also like to talk. A lot. They’d have questions and would want to tell us how great it was that we’re together and you know what? I already know that. And all of that would take time away from this.” She turned him and gave him a little shove.
He sat back on the foot of his bed and she climbed up into his lap, immediately cupping his face and pressing her lips to his in a hot, hungry kiss.
They didn’t need a lot of foreplay. They just needed each other. And bare skin.
Donovan slid his hands under the edge of her shirt, taking it up her body.
She pulled back, lifting her arms, so he could strip it over her head. Then she reached back and undid her bra, tossing it away. His gaze on her breasts, he reached over his head and grabbed his shirt between his shoulder blades, pulling it up and off.
Then he took her hips and lifted her, flipping her to her back onto the mattress. He hooked two fingers in the top of her shorts on either side and waited for her to unbutton and unzip them, then, making sure he caught her panties as well, he slid them down her legs and dropped them to the floor.
He shucked his sweatpants and boxers off, then hooked his hands behind her knees and tipped her back.
He settled between her thighs and her “oh, Donovan” was the sweetest thing he’d heard in a long time.
He kissed up the inside of her left thigh as his thumb ran over the outer folds of her pussy. She squirmed and lifted her hips toward his touch.
“You have no idea what it does to me to be able to give you pleasure like this,” he told her huskily, running his whisker roughened jaw along her inner thigh.
“I do,” she said breathlessly. “I love giving you pleasure too. The idea that someone like you—brave, and strong, and rugged—can be weak for me, is the hottest thing ever.”
He placed a kiss on her mound right above her clit. “Oh, I am weak for you, goddess,” he told her. “You can bring me to my knees when nothing else will.” He demonstrated by hitting the floor and pulling her ass to the edge of the bed.
She reached down and tangled her fingers in his hair. Her nails stroking over his scalp sent electricity racing down his spine.
“Be careful what you confess, Wild Thing,” she told him.
More than her touch, the affection in her voice nearly undid him.
“You gonna use it against me?” he asked, kissing his way to the crease where her leg met her pelvis.
“Oh yes,” she promised. “I’ll use any power I have to keep your mouth and hands on me as often as possible.”
“To have my mouth on you, all you have to do is ask.” He licked along the outer edge of her pussy.
“Please, Donovan.”
She moved her legs farther apart and twisted her fingers slightly in his hair.
“Anything.” He lowered his head and gave her a long lick. He dragged his tongue over her sensitive flesh, loving the way she shuddered underneath him, relishing the taste of her on his tongue.
He loved the moan she gave and licked again just to hear it. He circled her clit with the tip of his tongue and then sucked, making her hips buck up off the mattress.
“Donovan! More,” she begged.
He licked and sucked again, harder and faster, needing to feel her come. He slipped two fingers into her, rubbing over her G-spot as he flicked over the sweet nub.
She gripped his hair tightly and arched against his mouth, and a moment later came apart for him.
He didn’t even wait for her to catch her breath before he crawled up the bed, dragging her to the pillows with him. He kissed her deeply, spearing his fingers into her hair to hold her head still.
He reached for the bedside table, but as his knuckles hit the edge, he wondered what the hell he was doing. He’d never had a woman in this room and had no condoms beside the bed.
“My purse,” she said with a breathless laugh.
“I love that fucking purse,” he told her, kissing her hard and then leaning over the edge of the bed to grab the bag.
He hauled it up onto the mattress with them and she reached in, shuffling through the contents blindly. He teased her breasts and nipples with his fingers and tongue as she searched for the condom, making her wiggle and gasp.
Finally, she withdrew a foil packet and handed it to him, shoving the bag back off the bed. It hit the floor and he was certain that he heard several items spill out. But Naomi didn’t seem to care.
She reached for his cock, stroking her hand up and down. “Hurry.”
He ripped it open and sheathed himself in one fluid movement that he was actually quite proud of. Then he braced himself on his elbows on either side of her head. He looked into her eyes. “You’re amazing.”
“Ditto,” she told him with a little smile.
“Seriously. You’re incredible. And the idea that you want to be with me like this—actually even just having a cup of coffee with me—humbles me and makes me feel like a fucking king at the same time.”
She swallowed hard and pinched his ass. “If you make me cry right now, I’m going to be really upset.”
He leaned down and kissed her. “What do you want me to do instead?”
“Love me.”
He’d been prepared to hear dirtier words. Fuck me, to be specific. But, while hearing this classy woman talk dirty to him always sent a stab of heat through him unlike any other, hearing her say those two words, was the end of him.
And the beginning of them.
He was never going to be the same person. He was never going to do this with another woman. It was the strangest, most amazing, most important moment of his life.
“Better than anyone else ever has,” he promised.
Then he eased into her as she arched up to meet him and they both moaned.
He hesitated for just a moment, absorbing the feel of her, the moment, everything about all of it. Then he started moving.
He thrust deep but slow, wanting to make it all last.
But then his goddess started moving with him. She arched her back, and hooked a leg around his waist, taking him deeper and moaning his name in the way that always undid him.
“Naomi,” he groaned roughly.
“Donovan,” she answered.
They didn’t have to say anything more than that. They kept moving, the pace quickening naturally as the pleasure and the emotions built.
He moved faster, thrusting deeper and harder, until finally they both gasped. Her pussy clenched around him as she came and a moment later, he felt everything in him tighten and then release as he emptied into her with a long groan.
He slumped against her and then rolled to his side, pulling her up against his body. She slung her leg over his hip, one hand resting on his side as he dragged in deep lungfuls of oxygen.
They stayed entwined like that for several long moments. He loved the idea that she didn’t have to leave, and that she would be here in the morning when he awakened, but he wasn’t ready to let her go even a few inches away yet.
Her breathing slowed and their bodies cooled and eventually she rolled to her back. He took a deep breath and got up to deal with the condom in his attached bathroom. When he returned, she was under the covers and she lifted them for him to join her. He slid in next to her and she snuggled up against his side.
“I want this,” he said softly in the quiet room.
“You can have this whenever you want.
“Well, that. For sure.” He squeezed her ass. “But also this.” He ran his hand up her back.
He felt her shift to look up at him. “I want this too. Assuming you’re talking about sleeping with you and getting to run my hands over your naked body whenever I want to.”
“That. And…everything.”
She shifted again, this time moving away slightly and looking up at him more fully. “Good.”
“I’m staying. No Galapagos Islands for sure. I’ll give them my final decision tomorrow.”
She pressed her lips together. Then nodded. “Okay. Then we’ll make this show work. We’ll give them exactly what they want.”
“Ooookay.” He frowned. There was something in her tone that made him pause. “What does that mean?”
“Tomorrow we absolutely for sure script out everything that’s going to happen on camera. And…”
He shifted back so he could see her more fully. “And?”
“We…figure out a couple of animal rescues.”
His frown deepened. “Define ‘figure out’.”
“Just something basic.”
“What are you talking about?”
Naomi took a deep breath and Donovan braced himself. For some reason, he knew he wasn’t going to like this.
“We need to stage a couple animal rescues.”
He opened his mouth.
“Hear me out,” she said quickly. She sat up, clutching the sheet to her breasts. “They want some more exciting footage. I understand where they’re coming from. And we have to make the show work. So we have to give them what they need.”
Donovan pushed himself up too and propped his back against the headboard. He shoved a hand through his hair. “We’re not going to stage animal rescues, Nae.”
“Listen, it won’t be hard. We can reshoot the airboat rescue you did of the gray wolf. It would be so easy. We already have a lot of footage. We’d just add to it a little. We’d get a couple of boats out there so we could get some closer shots of you jumping from one to the other. You could have the wolf you have in rehab on one of the boats and we could get some tighter shots of her too.”
“That’s not the same wolf.”
“I know but—”
“So you want to reshoot the airboat chase and rescue that concerned you so much that you brought me cake to try to talk me out of doing it again?”
She wet her lips, but nodded. “I’ve learned over these past few weeks that I was probably overreacting. You’re a professional. You take risks, but they are calculated risks. You know what you’re doing.”
He huffed out an unamused laugh. “Well, thank you for that. But we’re not staging a rescue just to make the show exciting.”
“It’s not like it’s a lie. You actually did that rescue. And we have actual footage from it. We just need to stage part of it to get some more up close shots and different angles.”
“Naomi—”
“And then maybe one other,” she said quickly. “We just need a few things for them to piece together to show the investors. Come on, Donovan. You understand that we have to sell this. We need this platform to make a difference. But we have to get on the platform first.”
Donovan just studied her face. He couldn’t believe this was the same woman who had brought him food, trying to convince him to not take as many risks. He couldn’t deny that seeing her passionate about what he did and wanting to become a bigger part of it was a turn-on, though.
And she had a point. That airboat chase had actually happened.
“I’m listening,” he finally said.
She sat up straighter. “When you were shooting for the Go Wild Network, some of those rescues were staged, right?”
He shook his head. “Those were all authentic.”
“I’m not saying the rescues weren’t real, but I know you had to shoot a few of those things more than once.”
Again he paused, studying her. She knew television. He kept forgetting that somehow. Finally he nodded. “Okay. All of the rescues were authentic. All of the animals were actually in need. But we might have repeated a couple of the sequences or maneuvers more than once. When it was completely safe to do and didn’t threaten the animal’s health or that of any of the humans,” he added.
She grinned. “I knew it. Sometimes you have to do that to get the right shot. It’s just like all of the home renovation shows. It’s not like they ever show us the ones that worked out perfectly. We never see the house that comes together with no issues. It’s always the one with a terrible mold problem or that was built over some ancient burial ground or something. They only show us the dramatic, exciting ones. That’s what keeps people tuning in. They don’t want to see the everyday routine stuff.”
Donovan reached out and laced his fingers with hers. “But I’m starting to really like the routine everyday stuff.”
She gave him a little smile that seemed partly surprised, but also touched. “I’m glad. And me too. But I want you here for the routine everyday stuff all the time. Which means we need the show to work. We need to show the world the exciting parts so we can have the quiet, routine parts to ourselves.”
