DEEPER: A Contemporary Romance by Jorja Tabu Read online

  The same thing had occurred to Danny, and as he saw her lips close over the head of his cock, he damned his good luck, and not for the first time. A delicate woman who could barely take two of his fingers might not be able to handle all of him at once. He would have to keep his head, never get lost in the moment.

  I can handle that, he thought.

  Until Charlotte sucked the head of his cock, and then he couldn’t think about anything. Just warmth, moisture, and the beautiful girl in front of him, literally begging him in between licks along his shaft to fuck her.

  Danny forced himself to wake up—to move back into the moment and out of what he was sure was fantasy. Nope; Charlie was still there, her slender fingers gently moving along the length of him, her tongue darting here and there and occasionally taking him in, adding pressure to the tense head. Oh my god, Danny thought, and leaned down to move Charlotte back onto the cushions, his long legs bending and darting beneath her, propelling them both against the arm of the sofa, chest to chest. He wrapped one wide hand around her waist and kissed her neck, felt her legs ensnare him and press her pussy against his body, and then reached down to hold her ass with both hands again. He would support her and she could lean back on the couch, add a layer of distance; she could control how deep he went.

  They locked eyes for a moment, feeling the tender skin of the other slick and needy below. Danny held Charlie suspended over his cock, the tip barely teasing her opening; her doe eyes swept over his shoulders and he kissed her forehead.

  “Is it safe?” She asked again, sure that it was.

  “I promise,” he said, and he meant it.

  “Please don’t make me wait any more,” she whispered, and flexed her thighs so that the head of his cock bobbed against her silky pussy lips. “I want you so bad.”

  “Tell me,” he whispered back, allowing her to descend slightly. The plush head of his cock pushed past the delicate folds and an inch into her tunnel, and the pressure his girth applied made her gasp.

  “Please fuck me,” she said, more pleading in her voice this time.

  “Say it again,” he answered, grinning, and allowed her to drop another inch on his cock. He knew his width was stimulating her clit yet again, and that she couldn’t take all of him. Not yet. This was the best way.

  “Fuck me,” she panted, arching her back. It was all he could do not to thrust all the way inside of her when her nipples pushed against his chest. “Please, deeper, Danny,” Charlie said, rolling the muscles of her torso and seizing another inch. “Please, please fuck me.”

  Three inches in, six more to go. This was the sweetest torture either of them had ever known.

  He made her beg all the way to the bottom, where he was so wide she grimaced before adjusting. He knew as soon as he withdrew and re-entered she would cum; her clit was stretched tight and fat and begging for release. Danny kissed her lips, letting his tongue linger on her earlobe and down her jaw, then nibbled on her collarbone. As he felt her nails digging into his back, he pulled out and pushed back in, firm but slow.

  Charlotte exploded, her body clenching and releasing rhythmically as she moaned, rubbing her engorged nipples against Daniel’s chest.

  Rocking them together, Danny brought himself to the brink with Charlotte, feeling the pool of heat tighten his muscles, slink along his inner thighs and belly, and settle at the base of his cock. As she rode him fully, striding the length of him, he felt her cumming again and let himself go, clutching her to his chest. “Charlotte,” he said, feeling her pussy join him, “Oh my god, Charlotte…” He panted into her hair as they both came completely, emptying themselves into each other, lost in a mutual trance. Daniel knew there was no way he could be with anyone else ever again, ever touch a woman and have it feel like this. Charlie tried to memorize every texture, every movement, every scent. She wondered if this was what falling in love felt like.

  “Stay the night,” she whispered, once they were both exhausted and spent; Danny felt her holding onto him, and he could do nothing but nod, wrap his arms tightly around her, and thank the heavens above he’d come to Monterray.

  6.

  Charlotte and Daniel woke in each other’s arms at almost the same moment; technically, Daniel was first. He smoothed her curls away from her forehead and kissed her, softly, and she stirred. He held Charlie that way until her alarm roused her a little later.

  “I have to get going,” he said softly, and kissed her again. She blinked, stretched, and climbed on top of him.

  “Why?” Her hair was loose, falling around her face, and in the early light it looked like a dark halo.

  He didn’t want to go. “I have to meet a business partner,” he said slowly, realizing he didn’t know how to tell her he was finalizing the deal with Cran. Not that the result would be condos—not any more—but how to phrase it?

  “I’ll come with you,” she said, and slid off of him, teasing his body with hers. “It’s not some stuffy guys-only thing, is it?”

  “Well…” Daniel frowned, partly because she left before he could grab her again and partly because of her question. Cran was hardly stuffy. Slovenly was more the word. And it was down at the diner, so maybe it would be alright…

  “Maybe we could meet after?” She looked at him. For the first time since she’d asked him last night, something felt off—something about the way his brow lowered as he looked at something far away. Then his expression changed to one of determination and his blue eyes returned to her.

  “Nah,” he said, sitting up and stretching as well. “You should come with me.” Charlie’s appreciative glances toward his body made him smirk devilishly, and he leaned back on the bed. “To be fair…I have about a half hour before I have to be there…”

  Charlie grinned and climbed across the bed towards him. “A half hour is good, but why don’t we just come back here afterwards? Spend a couple half hours, instead?” She kissed his lips, her fingers tracing his features for a second before she retreated and stood.

  “Okay,” Daniel said, smiling dazedly. He hoped that this would be the start of more than a couple hours; he hoped that when Charlotte knew she was finally going to inherit Goodtree plantation, he could make this last forever. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? He was baffled by this change in him—above all else, Daniel Sage had always been a cautious man.

  Falling in love will do that to a guy, he thought, and smiled again.

  When Charlie turned the hot water in the shower on, she turned around to find him leaning on the door frame. He wasn’t wearing a stitch. “Room for me in there?” He nodded towards the shower and then returned his intense gaze to her. She smiled and slipped into the shower, teasing him with a finger.

  “Come and see,” she said. He grinned and stepped in after her. Her body undulated under the water, tiny rivulets running between her firm breasts, down her belly, disappearing in the scant hair below. Daniel felt himself growing hard as he looked at her, but instead of pursuing a quickie, he found he just wanted to wash her. Take nothing for himself, but the sensation of her supple body under his hands.

  Charlie saw his cock growing hard and smiled, then noticed the softness in his eyes. She turned her back to him to allow access to her entire self, feeling the warm water rushing over them as Daniel gently lathered her with soap and guided the stream over her. She almost felt like going back to sleep, she was so relaxed by the time they were done.

  “Daniel,” she said, leaning her head against his chest, “I want to tell you something.”

  “Fire away,” he said softly, moving tiny tendrils away from her face with his broad but careful fingers. He then bent and scooped her up in his arms, and carried her to the bed. She watched as he found a towel and began working up her body from her toes. “Well?” He asked, and gave her his sexy little smirk. “What’s on your mind?”

  “I think…” That I’m falling in love with you, Charlie thought. “I…I’ve never felt this way about someone. I’m so glad you stayed the night. An
d I was scared that yesterday afternoon was a mistake—I just haven’t done that before, ever, any of it—but it wasn’t.” She bit her lip. “It’s…It’s been the best twenty four hours of my life,” she said slowly.

  He nodded, placing the towel aside and pressing his still wet body to hers. “Mine too,” he said, touching her face with those same careful fingertips, and leaned in to give her a deep kiss.

  They were going to be late for that meeting, after all.

  ~~~~~~~

  Charlie put on a pair of khaki capris and a button down shirt, humming to herself. She buttoned her shirt while surreptitiously watching Daniel dress himself in the mirror over her shoulder, and felt her body glowing beneath her clothes. Would Mandy be able to tell, the next time they saw each other, that she’d just had more orgasms in the past day and a half than she had in the years previous?

  Probably. Charlotte laughed.

  They hurried out the door and down to Main Street. Charlie kissed Danny as they parked his truck, opening her door. “I’m just going to run into the Historical Society museum really quick, okay? That’ll give you a minute to talk alone, too.” Danny smiled and walked across the street to the café, his strong back swaying under the shirt he’d worn last night. He hadn’t cared that he smelled like he’d had sex in it, apparently, and that seemed about par with what she knew about him.

  Charlotte unlocked the door to the Society and went inside. She just needed to grab a book for an article she was writing…But that wasn’t going to happen today.

  Mary Hartford was waiting for her. “Good morning, Miss Goodtree,” she said primly. “I apologize for surprising you here,” she continued, taking a seat and looking up at Charlotte with owl-like eyes. Missus Mary Hartford was every day of eighty three, lived in the Bonny Hills Long Term Care facility, and was one of the many white descendents of the Goodtree line to deny Charlotte and Mandy. Of course, she did it in a very polite, southern way, but still.

  “How do you do, Mrs. Hartford?” Charlotte said this as politely as if they’d never met, let alone were related, and turned towards her desk. She’d left that book right here…

  “Your sister let me in. She said it most likely I’d find you here at some point today,” Mrs. Hartford continued, her voice weak. Charlotte nodded and smiled at her over her shoulder.

  “I’m here most days,” she said, and then found the book.

  “Yes, well,” Mrs. Hartford said. “Even if you hadn’t come till tomorrow, I would’ve stayed,” she finished, and Charlotte gave her a quizzical look.

  “Now why would you do that?” Considering we have such a great history, Charlotte thought.

  “Because I know very well that you are inserting yourself in this here Historical Society to get your hands on Goodtree plantation,” Mrs. Hartford said wryly. The two women looked at each other.

  “That’s quite a thing to say,” Charlotte said carefully. “Now, if you’ll excuse me—“

  “--I wish I had signed it,” Mrs. Hartford said ruefully. “But I was a fool, locked the small ways of my time.” She narrowed her eyes. “Your mother came round, had a document that she tried to get all of us to sign saying y’all was rightful heirs. Well, you know how that turned out.” She sighed. “Leslie was the only one with the gumption, and he was too weak to lift a pen. Told us all from his death bed it was the right thing to do. They were practically his last words.”

  Everyone knew the story of Govenor Goodtree’s decree, but Charlotte was shocked to hear someone who was there admit it happened. She felt her jaw drop and made herself snap it shut.

  “But as I said, I was a fool.” Mrs. Hartford stood up, and the effort took her frail body a moment. After hesitating just a second, Charlotte reached over and steadied her. “Thank you,” Mrs. Hartford said, and patted her hand. “But listen to me—I have sorrier news than this to tell, if there could be such a thing.” She turned her round eyes up to meet Charlotte’s face. “Cran is selling it, to a stranger. Some big developer from Raleigh, probably going to turn the whole place into condominiums.”

  Everything froze for a moment.

  Charlotte’s stomach lurched.

  “I wanted you to know from me, what that devil’s been up to,” Mrs. Hartford said, unaware of the tidal upset she’d given her long-lost great-niece. “My care-giver is waiting in a car outside, honey. But I thought you should know, from the family—we should’ve done what was right, a long time ago, and now we’re reaping what we sowed.” The old woman looked sad as could be, and Charlotte held the door for her as she tottered out. A young girl in scrubs met them and escorted Mrs. Hartford into a van, with Charlotte frozen in the doorway.

  As their car pulled out, the window of the café across the street became visible. Sitting right there, in plain view, were Daniel Sage and Cranwell Goodtree, Jr.

  Just then Daniel looked over and saw her. He was smiling, his brilliant blue eyes softening as they took her in and his hand raising to wave.

  But she fled, tears falling from her eyes, and even though he was strong and fast, Daniel could not catch her, wasn’t able to follow her through the winding alleyways as she ran from him.

  His pleading voice wasn’t enough to slow her down.

  Nothing was.

  7.

  Mandy tried again, resting her forehead against the door of her sister’s apartment. “C’mon, Charlie. It’s just me. I just want to make sure you’re alright.”

  “Go away, please.” Charlotte’s choked voice crept through the crack at the bottom of the door.

  Mandy took a deep breath, her eyes shutting tightly in frustration. Finally, she spoke with a firmness that she knew Charlotte would recognize as fair warning. “If you don’t let me in, I’m calling Mama. Right now.” She got out her cell phone and waited.

  The lock clicked. She took another deep breath, put the phone away, and turned the doorknob.

  Her sister stood there, dark circles under her eyes and her hair akimbo. “Aw, honey,” Mandy whispered, and took Charlie into her arms for a long hug. “It’s going to be okay,” she said, and her kindness made Charlotte cry all over again.

  “Yes,” she said through her tears, “it is going to be just fine, as soon as I can st-st-stop cr-crying.” No matter how many times she asked herself to calm down, she couldn’t. She had never felt like this before.

  Two new emotional states, so raw, so close in introduction, so tied to the same man—so completely and utterly different. Delicious, new love, resonant in her body, and then the wrenching break in her chest when she’d been betrayed. “How could he do this to me?” She shuddered when she realized how weak she sounded, but nothing seemed to stop her tears. Mandy held her tightly.

  “I think it’s totally fair for you to feel this way,” she said softly. “And I have told him as much.”

  “Did he come by your work again?” Daniel had appeared at the museum, Charlotte’s apartment, and then Mandy’s in turn. At each place, he’d left once asked, his jaw so tight it looked like his teeth were grinding into dust; Charlie couldn’t imagine what he thought he could say that would make this hurt less evil.

  “No, not after I told him I didn’t give a shit what reasons he thought he had to mislead you.” Mandy had been disappointed when she’d found out the handsome stranger was the monster that had hurt Charlie; on the other hand, she hadn’t missed his respect for her sister’s wishes, or that it seemed he was very convinced he had good reason to speak to the Goodtree women.

  Too bad.

  Charlie finally leaned back and wiped her eyes. “Well, if we’re being honest…” The tears welled again. “If I’m being honest…I’m just mad at myself. The things I did with him, Mandy…” She stared in open mouthed shock, remembering. “I feel so humiliated! So…so used.” Like rain, the tears fell again, and Mandy shushed her and pulled her close once more.

  “Well, for what it’s worth, sister, I think all that sex was what he gave you,” she said slowly, after Charlie had somewhat quieted.
“I don’t think you should regret any good times you had. All those orgasms must certainly have been real.” She quirked an eyebrow at her sister as she leaned back.