Misadventures Of A Single Mom (Big Sky Boyfriends #1)

Chapter 15

15

“It took most of the night but we made a good dent in that box of condoms,” Ty said as he rolled onto his side to face me, one arm thrown over my waist. He grinned, obviously pleased with his extensive and thorough male prowess. Every inch of me was pleased with his male prowess, too.

“That’s because you had me demonstrate the trick from the bachelorette party.” I pushed on his shoulder sleepily. “Several times.”

A hand snaked up into my hair, one of Ty’s fingers wrapped around a curl. Pulled gently. “I love your hair.” He looked enthralled.

“My hair?” I couldn’t have been more surprised. “I figured you for a breast man. Or a leg man.”

“Definitely a breast man.” To prove his point, he moved his hand down to the top of the sheet, lowering it just enough to expose one. His fingertip circled my nipple ever so lightly. “Ever since that morning when you flashed me?—”

I threw a hand over my eyes and chuckled. “Don’t remind me.”

He pulled my hand away, kissed my knuckles.

“—I dreamed of seeing you naked, touching your breasts.” He looked at my hardening nipple like a boy opening a present from Santa. Mesmerized, obsessed. “Pink. The same pretty shade as your pussy.”

Who knew a man’s words could make you feel…wonderful. Sexy. A whole lot naughty. It was like a Band-Aid to my wounded libido. I felt attractive, alluring. And that was very empowering.

“But your hair, it drives me crazy.”

I harrumphed. “It drives me crazy, too. I’m glad you like the one thing that’s the bane of my existence. It’s curly,” I grumbled, as I pulled on a curl, let it spring back.

“Sexy.”

“It’s messy and lacks style.”

“Wild.”

Wild. I would never have used that adjective to describe it, but if it floated Ty’s boat, it was okay by me.

“Save my spot.” Ty climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom.

It was just getting light, the early morning sun coming through Ty’s bedroom window. I could now make out what I’d missed the night before. I hadn’t noticed his interior decorating skills at the time. I’d been too distracted by…other things. There was a bed, a big one, an oak dresser with a fichus plant on top, wicker laundry basket in the corner. The walls were a light tan, white trim. Rattan blinds on the windows. I hadn’t seen or touched the floor yet as Ty had dumped me straight into bed the night before and hadn’t let me up since. I rolled over now and saw refinished pine.

“Why do you think I left you there?” Ty asked as he leaned against the bedroom doorway, naked. Very, very naked.

I looked at him, confused. I didn’t remember what we’d been talking about. “Where?”

“The damn bachelorette party. If you’re going to put a dick in your mouth in front of me, it’s going to be mine.”

I remembered how it felt stretching my lips wide, against my tongue. The taste of it, the way it swelled even further just before he came. I looked down at his growing…dick. “So it’s a good skill to teach?”

He yanked on the covers, exposing me to the waist, and climbed back in bed. Moved on top of me. I felt every hard, hot inch of him. “You might need to practice some more.” His blue eyes crinkled at the corners as he grinned.

“You didn’t think I was skilled enough last night?”

His eyes went all out of focus as he remembered back to the multiple times I’d helped him with a condom.

“This is where I get jealous and possessive knowing you did this with some other guy.”

I smiled up at him. His beard had grown in surprisingly quickly and he was on the way to being Grizzly Adams. “Then you’ll probably be happy to hear I learned it, not from being with another man, but from Goldie.”

“I don’t know if I should be creeped out you learned that from your mother-in-law or thankful.”

I ran my hands down his lean back to his butt and pulled him closer. “I’m thankful for the gift box of condoms.”

I opened my legs so he fit in between, felt his hard length pressing against my entrance.

Ty shifted slightly and I moaned. “What about the toys?” he asked.

I reached down and took him in my hands. Ty sucked in a breath. “Like you said, who needs toys?”

“I think we should talk about your husband,” Ty said, awhile later.

We were still in bed, the sheets a tangled mess, although we’d eaten, showered and returned to make a bigger dent in the condom box. I was insatiable. I couldn’t get enough of Ty, of his hands on my body. But with those words?—

“I don’t usually take two men to bed, even if one’s dead.”

I wore one of Ty’s fire department T-shirts and nothing else. I sat up, propped by pillows against the headboard.

He smiled, ran a finger up my bare arm. I swatted his hand away.

“That first time I met you at the pancake breakfast, you said he’d been with another woman.”

I sighed, tucked the sheet and blanket around my waist, worried the edging between my fingers. “I found Nate cheating on me the day I learned I was pregnant with Bobby. They’d been fucking—there’s no other word for it—for over a year. I had no clue, until I found them in the storage room at Goldilocks.”

Ty lay on his side, propped up on his elbow.

“He used to travel a lot, specifically to Germany. He said there was a dealer of very unique and high-end glass toys he wanted in the store. Back then, he helped run it with Goldie. I guess they’d met online. Turns out he was demo-ing the toys with the dealer. Her name was Annika. She’d flown into town under the guise of a sales trip, touring the US with her specialty items. She was supposed to hit stores all over the West, but didn’t make it any further than Bozeman.”

I gave Ty a wistful smile. I didn’t like talking about this part of my life. It was a painful time, but Ty deserved to know. I didn’t want it to come between us.

“After I kicked him out, he moved to Germany to be with her. The story goes, she was married. Her husband didn’t freak out about the extramarital activities like I did. Instead, he joined in.”

Ty half grunted, half laughed. “Go on.”

“Nate died of a blood clot that went to his lung, they think from flying. He’d just arrived in Hamburg the day before.”

“Ah, yes, hamburger.”

I laughed, remembering Bobby’s words. “Right. He was in bed with Annika and her husband and just died. Poof.”

“Holy crap.”

Ty placed a hand on my thigh and I felt his heat through the covers. “So you were married to an asshole. Do you still miss the bastard? Do you still?—”

“Love him?” I ran my fingers over Ty’s head, loving the feel of his soft hair. “After I kicked him out, I was sad. Depressed. Hormonal and nauseated for months. More angry than anything else. I filed for divorce. By the time Bobby was born, Nate had moved out of the country. Out of my life. But when he died, we were technically, legally still married. It’s hard to divorce a dead man. So I’m his widow, not his ex.”

Ty slid up the bed to kiss me on the mouth. A gentle, soft kiss.

I looked him in the eye. “Looking back, I’m not sure if I ever really loved him the way one should love their spouse. I’d been young. Na?ve.”

A side of his mouth ticked up. “And now?” One of his hands tugged gently at the blanket, lowering it so he could kiss a little lower. My left nipple, to be precise. Right through the T-shirt. He bit down gently.

“Now?” I asked, my voice breaking. I forgot the reason for the question.

He yanked the blanket down to the foot of the bed. And kissed a little lower, below the edge of his shirt. He pushed it up and moved between my legs. I shifted to let him.

“Now?” he asked again. His hands followed his mouth until they were doing very special and exciting things to very special and exciting places on my body.

“Now!” I yelled.

That night, after dashing through the Colonel’s backyard in Ty’s T-shirt, I found four messages on my phone. With Ty doing his caveman routine, I’d left my cell at home the night before. Standing in the kitchen, I listened to them. Kelly called first to hear about my date with Dex, which I’d completely forgotten about. While my mom told me about her day with the boys and asked me to call them back, I noticed the gnomes were missing. Hadn’t they been on the counter watching us have sex? Now where were they?

The last message was from Goldie to call her when I’d taken a break from sex with Ty. The gnomes were the least of my concern. I had to deal with a sex curious mother-in-law before I dealt with wandering gnomes.

I called Goldie. “Hi!” I said brightly. What did one say to someone when they knew you’d had sex? Lots and lots of sex.

“I knew it. I can hear it in your voice.”

I wedged the phone between my ear and my shoulder as I pulled the kitchen table back in place. I had a hot flash remembering how the table got moved. Could I ever eat there again without breaking into a hormone induced sweat?

“All I said was hello.”

“I know about these things,” she said sternly.

“I could have been having sex with Dex instead of Ty! He was the guy I went out with last night.”

“I hear the sass in your voice, but I’ll forgive you this once since you did good. I bet Ty was, too.” Goldie chuckled at her own pun. I rolled my eyes. “Of course, you wouldn’t have sex with Dex. You love Ty.”

I dropped the phone. It bounced off the kitchen table before I was able to grab it back up.

“Um, love?” I gurgled and plopped down into a kitchen chair, the wood cold on my butt. I wasn’t prepared for that. Sure, there was definitely something special between Ty and myself, but love? I just chalked the butterflies in my stomach up to lust.

“I lust Ty.”

“Sure, you do. If I was thirty years younger, I’d lust Ty, too. Hell, I lust Ty at seventy.”

I smiled. I saw Ty cut through the back yard. I gave a little wave and felt those butterflies. Was that love?

Oh, my God. Why did Goldie always have to be right?

I was in love with Ty. I was in love with the man coming in my back door in rumpled shorts and a gray MSU T-shirt. No shoes and wearing the look of a man who’d had lots and lots of sex. Holy crap.

Thank goodness Goldie couldn’t see him now. I put my finger to my lips to keep him quiet. He came close and dropped a kiss on top of my head.

I smiled at him. A sappy smile of a woman in love. “Um. I’ve got to go.”

“I don’t want to keep you from ripping Ty’s clothes off,” Goldie said.

Not a bad idea, I thought as I eyed Ty’s body.

“But I just wanted to tell you I’ve got Veronica coming in tomorrow to help me out. She’s back from her trip to the Alamo and needs some extra shifts.”

I’d forgotten about work. Hell, I’d forgotten about everything except putting Tab A into Slot B with Ty.

“Thanks,” I said, meaning it. I ran my hand up under Ty’s T-shirt to feel the soft hair, his hot skin. Why couldn’t I get enough?

“By the way, do you know anything more about the dead guy in the pig pen?” Goldie asked.

Oh yeah, that. “Haven’t heard a thing. When I hear something, I’ll call you.”

“Ha! Sure, you will. Tell Ty I said hello. Say, want me to swing by with another gift box for you? Just tell me what you need and I’ll leave it on your doorstep.”

My hand dropped lower to press against his erection. “Ty’s got everything I need.”

One quickie later, we were finally able to control ourselves. I showered, put on a pair of sweats and hoodie, and pulled out the shrimp ring from the fridge.

We sat shoulder to shoulder on my couch watching a James Bond marathon, Ty’s arm thrown over the back of the couch. His hand rested on my shoulder. The shrimp, cheese puffs and beer were spread out on the coffee table in front of us. Ty turned down the stinky cheese with a similar face the boys made. Must be a guy thing.

“Goldie wanted to see if I knew more about Morty’s murder.”

Ty tossed a cheese ball in the air and caught it with his mouth. He crunched a few times then said, “I called my parents when you were in the shower. They said the police have no real leads as there’s no way to take fingerprints. There aren’t any footprints or tire tracks to give someone away. It must have been raining when Morty was dumped there.”

“Are your parents all right?” If my mom had found a hacked up body in a pig sty, she’d probably have a nervous breakdown. But, she’d probably have a nervous breakdown being near a pig sty.

“They’re fine. Taking it all in stride. They’re more worried about you.”

“Me?” I raised my eyebrows. “Really? That’s sweet.”

He popped another cheese ball, had a swig of beer. “I called the sheriff who I met that night. He didn’t have much new either. The only thing they’ve been able to say definitively is that Morty had meth in his system.”

I wondered which body part they’d analyzed to discover that and cringed at the thought. I grabbed a shrimp, ate it, and tossed the tail onto the plastic tray. Not very ladylike, but I’d already gotten the guy. With all the unladylike stuff I’d done already, tossing a shrimp tail wasn’t going to make much of an impact.

“Meth, meth, meth. Everything’s meth around here. Crazy robber guy, Kelly’s neighbor’s kid?—”

“The house in Churchill, about five or six calls in the past two weeks.”

I pointed my beer at him. “Exactly.”

Ty’s cell rang.

“Strickland.” Ty listened. “Where?” Listened some more. “I can’t come now. I’ve had a few beers. Right. Seven. I’ll be there.” He hit End and turned to me. “Wildland fire. In the National Forest north of Big Sky.”

“Do you have to go? Now?” It was dark out. Late. “Sorry, I forget fires don’t stop because it’s nighttime.”

He smiled. “I can’t go now. I’ve had too many beers to head out but they want me in the morning. I’ll meet up with a crew coming in from Helena and go down.”

“How big is it?”

Forest fires happened all the time out West. Lightning strikes, negligent campers, tossed cigarettes could create a catastrophic fire that burned acres and acres of wilderness. If it was big enough, firefighters from all over the country came to help fight it.

“So far, just a few hundred acres, but it’s going to be windy up there. It’ll grow more before it’s contained.”

“Do they know how it started?”

“No bad weather in the area, so it wasn’t lightning. Probably a camper, but they won’t know for a while.”

I stood up and started cleaning up the food debris. “You should get some sleep. Sounds like you’re going to need it.”

Ty stood, too. Turned off the TV. “Your bed or mine?”