The Apple Tree (Sunday Morning, #2) (54)

Her gaze drifted to my bare chest and jeans that I hadn’t yet zipped and buttoned. “I know.” She held up my ladle. “But they don’t. So you’re up here, but I’m at my house.” She winked before setting the ladle aside and leaning forward on her hands and knees.

“Take the ladle downstairs. I’ll be down in a minute. And that dog is not staying. You do not buy pets for kids that aren’t yours.” I pulled a shirt out of my dresser drawer.

She wrinkled her nose and sat back on her heels. “He needed a home. He’ll be an excellent hunting dog. And all young kids should have a dog. Also, what’s up with your attitude?”

“My quarterback let it slip that you were sneaking around with him last year.” I turned toward her, tucking in my shirt and buttoning my jeans.

She rolled her lips between her teeth, brown eyes extra wide.

“I don’t care, Eve. But if you screwed my QB, I’d like to know since I have to listen to him and his friends talk about you. If I punish them for being disrespectful, I need to know if it’s justified.”

After a few seconds, she nodded slowly. “We messed around, but we didn’t have sex. My older sister told me to lose my virginity to someone who knew what they were doing. Drew was sixteen when we were first a thing. If you want to know what we did—”

“I don’t.” I ran my hands through my hair.

“Are you mad?”

“No. Get downstairs before they start asking questions, and make sure that dog doesn’t pee everywhere.”

“You sound upset.” She slid off the bed. “If you must know, I was with Drew because his dad owns a distillery outside of town.” She shrugged. “He never noticed when a few bottles of alcohol went missing from his bar.”

I rested a hand on my hip and stared at the ceiling. “You let a guy touch you because you wanted booze?”

“When you say it like that, it sounds bad. Drew is nice. And he’s fun.” She pulled my hand from my hip and guided it around her, placing it on her ass while she pressed her chest to mine and stared up at me.

I didn’t want to look at her because she was a massive weakness of mine, but I did anyway.

“Kiss me,” she whispered.

It was a bad idea since my emotions teetered somewhere between brooding and insanity, but I kissed her, squeezing her ass. She moaned into my mouth, so I released her because I was getting an erection.

“Go,” I said.

She frowned and turned, but something in my brain short-circuited. I slid my hand around her waist to bring her back to my chest. My other hand pulled her hair away from her neck, and I kissed below her ear. She smelled sweet like apples and sugar.

Her head lulled to the side as I unbuttoned her jeans and dragged down the zipper.

I thought of Drew talking about her.

I thought of Fred and Anne suggesting she date Austin.

I thought of the no-name who took her virginity.

I thought about taming the rebel child in her.

Then I slid one hand down the front of her underwear, and my other snaked up her shirt and into the cup of her bra. She embodied everything that made men weak and impulsive.

“You’re fucking with my head, Eve,” I said, and it came out as a growl like I was upset. And maybe I was.

She made me reckless, and it felt like a high I had to chase.

The ladle dropped to the carpet, and she arched her back while one of her hands covered mine between her legs, her nails digging into my skin as she widened her stance. Her other teased my damp hair.

Once again, I was engaging in a not-so-proud moment with two ministers in my kitchen, my son unpredictably running around the house, and Eve’s mom giddy over the idea of Eve meeting a nice boy.

Who was I kidding? No one would tame Eve, least of all me.

Her breath caught in tiny staccatos as I fingered her.

A long “ohhh” fell from her lips.

I was so aroused, torturing myself, so I did the math. Did I have time to slide her jeans and panties just past her perfect ass and take her quickly from behind? And could I grab a condom and get it rolled on without prolonging things to the point where someone would have to send Josh to check on me?

Eve started to make a loud sound, so my hand on her breast made a fast track to her mouth. Her body buckled in my hold as she orgasmed.

So much for my math calculations; I didn’t factor in her responsiveness.

I pulled her closer to me. Her hands pressed flat to the door as I rocked my pelvis against her ass and kissed her neck. I was in a bad way, painfully desperate to release.

Eve was the dealer who just kept dealing, the temptress. She left one hand on the door to steady herself as her other hand tried to push her jeans down a little farther. I was so out of my mind there wasn’t a coherent thought in a five-mile radius. My hand disappeared from between her legs, and I unbuttoned my jeans and yanked down the zipper.

Get a condom.

My brain made an effort to show a little responsibility, but my dick wanted nothing to do with reasoning. The condom was on the other side of the room.

Eve’s bare ass was pressed to my erection, shielded only by my cotton briefs.

Don’t be stupid!

My heart pounded, and I was uncomfortably hard. And that made me stupid. I sucked her earlobe into my mouth and teased it with my teeth, and she moaned.

That was the final straw, my complete undoing. I pushed my jeans and briefs down just enough to release my erection. I wanted to be inside of her more than anything.