Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

23. Milo

TWENTY-THREE

MILO

“What in the world do you think you’re doing?” A fiery ball of red came streaking out the back door, full of steam and lookin’ like the best kind of fantasy.

Stealing my breath and sanity, because clearly, I had lost my goddamn head.

She came bounding down the porch steps, barefoot, hair wild and her stunning face glowing, girl still wearing those sleep shorts and tank she’d had on last night when she’d climbed down onto her knees and blown my mind.

I arched a brow at her from where I was leaned over the worktable measuring a 2x4, and I ran a pencil along the ruler to mark my cut. “Working.”

She came to a stop on the other side of the table, a hand propped on her hip, sass flying from her mouth. “Um, yes, I see that, and you got beaten to a pulp last night. Are you insane? You cannot be out here working today.”

She flung a hand in the direction of the wood I was measuring.

A grumble of a laugh left me.

She was fucking cute when she was mad. Hell, she was cute all the time.

Asleep in my bed with all that hair around her.

In my arms and making these tiny noises while she was lost to a dream.

On her knees with my cock in her mouth.

You pick.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine. You should be in a hospital right now.”

My head shook, and I focused on getting the line just right, mumbling, “Best way to heal from something like this is just gettin’ up and moving. You sit still too long, and your muscles seize up.”

On a huff, she crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re going to make it worse.”

“I’m not.”

Ocean eyes caught me up, her demeanor shifting like she was seeing the scars written on me anew.

This girl, nothing but a riptide.

Unexpected.

Everything I hadn’t anticipated.

Everything I shouldn’t want.

“And I’m guessing you know this from experience?”

Her eyes drifted over my shoulders and chest that were now concealed by a tee. But she’d seen it plain last night, all because I was a fool who couldn’t stop from exposing myself.

I’d wanted to take something good for a minute when I’d been sure I was going to succumb to the bad.

“Fighting is in my blood, Little Dove.” The admission barely made it into the air as I leaned down to guide the 2x4 through the table saw. The engine whirred and the blade spun, and the sound of the wood grinding in two didn’t stand the chance of blocking out the questions that flared from her.

The plank broke apart, and I let go of the button. The sawblade spun slower and slower, quieting to her soft intensity that was rippling between us like shockwaves.

“You’re the gentlest man I know, Milo.” There was a question behind it.

A scoff got free. “That’s bridled anger, Tessa. That’s me keeping who I am under lock and key.”

“Maybe they’re both part of who you are.”

I grunted. “You keep trying to see someone you want me to be.”

“Maybe I like everything I see.”

My gaze snapped up. Damn it, I never should have given in yesterday. Touched her. All but demanded for her to touch me.

Because that energy sparked in the air.

Shocking between the two of us.

Lust and greed and something far more dangerous than either of them.

“Think it best if we don’t go there,” I warned low.

Her eyes narrowed. “Sorry to break it to you, Milo, but I think we already did.”

I heaved out a sigh as I started to organize the pieces of wood I’d cut for the rest of the treehouse ceiling.

My side burned like a bitch, every inch of my body in the clutches of an unrelenting ache, insides spiking with sharp shocks of pain that sheared through me as I pushed through every movement.

I ignored it because I did know from experience.

Moving was the only way I was going to make it through the day.

How many matches had I been in that I’d been beaten to within an inch of my life, then had to jump right back into the ring the next night?

I didn’t get there from lying around moaning, that was for damned sure.

She kept watching me, waiting for a response, the weight of her stare ten-thousand pounds on my back.

“We shouldn’t have,” I finally rumbled.

“I think we’re of two differing opinions.”

Turning my back on her didn’t seem to work because her voice kept coming at me from behind.

“Because the way I see it, I think you really want me, and you’re just trying to pretend like you don’t. I mean, have you seen me?”

She pushed out one of those teases she usually played, except when I shifted to look at her from over my shoulder, there was nothing remotely comical on her face.

It was just the hope cut in the stark angles of her gorgeous face.

Cheeks flushed and that smattering of freckles striking in the rays of light.

My chest tightened.

A red-headed flame.

The sun rising on a darkened day.

“Never said I didn’t want you.”

“Then take me.” She said it so simply. “Let’s see where this goes.”

Autumn’s face flashed through my mind.

Every oath that I had made.

I promise you always, baby.

Always.

I squeezed my eyes as guilt came stabbing through, as gory as a slasher flick.

I propped my hands on my hips and turned away like it could keep Tessa from seeing the corruption that clawed through my spirit.

I roughed a frustrated hand through my hair.

I felt her move slowly.

Caution and care.

She must have been two feet away from me when she whispered, “Talk to me. I’m right here.”

Agony cleaved me in two, and I gulped around the sorrow as I let go of a little bit of myself. “I haven’t been with anyone since she died, Tessa. Haven’t touched anyone. Kissed anyone. Not until you.”

Tessa exhaled a shaky sound, this woman the first who’d made me let part of that go. One who fucked with my mind and made me break the oath I’d made.

My whole life, Autumn…I promise…it belongs to you. Nothing can change that. Not time or circumstance.

Misery burned a hole in me. It terrified me that Tessa might be the only one who could fill it.

Her fingertips slowly drifted down my back.

An embrace.

Support.

A friend who’d come to mean too fucking much. “I’m sorry you lost her.”

“You don’t have to feel sorry for me.”

I could almost feel the pinch of her brow, the gravity of her breath. “Hurting for you and feeling sorry for you are two different things. And I hurt for you.”

She hesitated, then whispered, “But everyone deserves to be touched. To be loved.”

I turned to face her. “Not me.”

But I’d taken her affection and used it up, anyway.

Her lips tipped down at one side, tenderness full in the soft twist of her mouth, red locks of hair flaming around the sharp lines of her face.

“You’re wrong, Milo. You deserve happiness. Joy and peace and safety. Pleasure. All the things you’ve been giving me.”

Affection burned through her expression.

So intense, I swore it was scorching my skin.

“I don’t deserve any of those things.”

Hurt flashed through that unrelenting gaze.

A gaze that could see all the way to the hidden places inside of me.

“Even if you think you don’t, I still need you to be safe. What happened last night? I refuse to let you get hurt again because of me.”

“I’ll be careful,” I promised. “Need you to be, too, until we find out what’s going on.”

Who was responsible for this.

“I don’t even know what Karl wants.” She bit down on her bottom lip.

If it was him?

I knew exactly what he wanted.

I couldn’t help but slide my palm to the side of her face, my thumb tracing over the freckles beneath her eye. “You, Little Dove. He wants you.”

Tenderness overtook her features, and she let lightness weave into the heaviness that had saturated our conversation. “Well, he obviously cannot have me, since I’m engaged to you.”

“Obviously,” I told her, going for a grin that likely cracked.

She angled her head. “How about I call in today and help you with the treehouse? Remy and Scout are going to be ready to play in this thing before you know it.”

Air puffed from my nose. “Sounds like you just want to keep an eye on me.”

Honestly, I didn’t want to let her out of my sight, so it wasn’t going to take much for her to talk me into it.

Her eyes widened in feigned offense. “Who, me? You think I’m some kind of schemer?”

“Positively diabolical.” A grin tugged at my mouth.

“Well, it fits because if I catch you trying to pick up one of those heavy pieces of wood, I’m going to make you pay for it later.”

She winked at me and wiggled her hips.

Tiny Tease.

I grunted. “Don’t tempt me, Tessa.”

“Um, last night, you gave me my first orgasm that I didn’t give myself. I’m pretty sure it isn’t me who is doing the tempting.”

Surprise bound with the hunger, and I snatched her by the back of the neck. “What did you just say?”

Her eyes rounded in surprise, and I had to stop myself from devouring that mouth all over again.

“Yeah…well…Karl,” she stammered. “It wasn’t like I was having any of those with him.”

“And before?”

Redness filled her face in a way I’d never seen it, embarrassment lighting her up, though she tried to joke, “Oh, I was saving that V-card like it was going to be something special. But we know how that turned out.”

I wasn’t prepared for the rush of disgust that sped through my veins, clashing with the lust that banged through my body.

Karl was her first?

I wanted to put my fucking fist through a wall.

“You deserve to find someone who loves you, Tessa. With everything they’ve got. Treat your heart and this body right.”

She blinked up at me, the words tremoring when she murmured, “Yeah, Milo, you’re right, I do.”

Then she twisted herself out of my hold and moved to the pile of wood I’d been making.

I dropped my head.

Shit.

How the fuck was I supposed to be around her now?

With that mouth and those eyes and those hands?

With the knowledge that last night I gave her exactly what she needed?

With this girl who made me wonder what it would be like to give it to her forever.

“This treehouse is pure awesomesauce. Remy and Scout are going to lose it. Plus, I’m pretty sure your neighbors are going to get a complex,” Tessa rambled as she swished the paintbrush over the floorboards of the steps. “There’s going to be no keeping up with the Joneses after this baby gets finished.”

I let go of a playful grunt. “Only neighbor within ten miles is my mother.”

“And she’s going to be horribly jealous. Green with envy. Like, seriously, it’s kinda sad.” She grinned, all wide-eyed. “But there’s really not much you can do but build this to its intended grandeur. You know what they say, bigger is better.”

She winked.

The girl was a goddamned flirt, and there was a distinct chance I liked it too much.

The lightness she exuded. The warmth. She was a life raft when things got too deep.

Like she was doing her all to get rid of the pressure over what we’d fallen into last night, but it wasn’t forced, either.

It was easy.

Right.

It was just me and Tessa.

Our friendship.

Our teasing.

This bond that strengthened with each layer of me that she peeled away rather than her running, like I’d expected her to do.

“Is that so?” I asked, letting her innuendo weave in with my response, playing with fire, but since the girl was a ball of it, I didn’t know how to stop.

“Mm-hmm. Who wouldn’t want their margarita bigger? Or their pizza? Or I don’t know, the mountain they’re about to climb? It seems like more of a challenge, don’t you think? At least the one thing I know for sure is that I like my things super-sized.”

Mischief pranced through her expression, though her eyes told a different story, this softness there that was riddled with fierceness and vulnerability.

This was a woman who would just lay herself on the line if it felt right.

If she believed in it.

All while staunchly believing in the end it would turn out all right.

“Thanks for spending the day out here in the heat, slogging along beside me,” I told her.

“What can I say? Some things are worth working for. Or working beside.”

She shrugged like what she said didn’t matter, like she wasn’t slowly undoing me with every word that fell from her mouth, with every glance she cast my way.

I stared at her for a beat. Her flaming hair was hidden beneath a ball cap and tucked behind her ears, the rest of it a lush fall down her back.

This morning, she’d dashed inside to change into something appropriate to work in.

I wouldn’t have exactly called it that.

She’d strutted out wearing cut-off shorts that showed off her long, long legs, and a tight red tank top.

Shocker.

My favorite color.

The tank hugged that sweet, tempting body, the neckline scooping down to reveal a bit of cleavage.

My mouth had instantly watered, and I’d been wondering why I’d been such an idiot last night that I didn’t take the time to get a peek at her tits while I’d had the chance.

Thought she was purposefully trying to drive me out of my mind.

Drive me to desperation.

All that pale flesh flushed from working out in the heat.

Glistening and kissed by the sun.

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face.

Fuck me.

“You’re hot.” It was a low grumble.

“It’s like a thousand degrees out here, and you’re working a woman to the bone. And you’re like…all broken. How are you even standing right now?”

“Not broken, Tessa.”

Her expression softened. “No, Milo. You might be battered, but you’re not broken.”

“Little Dove.” It was caution and this adoration that kept climbing to the surface.

She angled her head in thought before she tossed her brush into the near-empty container.

“Come swimming with me.” It wasn’t even a request.

Bad idea.

“I’ve got work to do.”

“We’ve been out here for hours, and we’re almost finished. I painted the entire deck, steps, and railing. One more day and we can bust this thing out. See how great it is to have friends like me? Seriously, what would you do without me?”

Her grin was coy, so sly, as she started to edge down the lawn in the direction of the lake that was shimmering behind her.

All sweet seduction.

“Only have a few more boards to nail in to get the ceiling finished.”

“Come on, Milo,” she whined in that playful way. She tossed the hat from her head and began to spin around with her face upturned to the sky, red locks whipping around her. “You have all of this, and you don’t stop to enjoy it? Look at this view.”

She stumbled out of her spin then directly proceeded to peel that tank over her head to reveal the lacy red bra she wore underneath.

Shit.

What was she doing?

Lust fisted my guts, and then she wound out of her shorts, too, kicking both them and her shoes off before she ran for the lake in nothing but her bra and underwear.

Girl a mile of legs and slender curves and tempting shapes.

Tiny Tease.

Hell, I was right—she was goddamn diabolical.

My stomach growled.

She spun around to walk backward. “Are you coming or what? Tell me you don’t want to swim with me. I dare you.”

She hopped onto the dock and sprinted down the planks. She didn’t hesitate to jump.

She threw her arms into the air as she catapulted off the end.

Freedom rang from her mouth.

A shout of excitement.

Water splashed as she went under, then popped right back up.

She swished the drenched locks of hair out of her face, grinning so huge that it panged right in the middle of my chest.

“Get that cute butt in here, Milo Hendricks. You’d be crazy to miss out on this,” she shouted while she bobbed up and down in the water.

“You’re the crazy one…that water’s fuckin’ freezing.”

She giggled and started to float on her back. “It’s exhilarating. It’s all in the perspective, don’t you know?”

I’d edged that way, slower and slower as I approached the water.

My stomach twisted.

Images flashed.

“For a giant who can take himself a beating, you’re a big baby,” she teased.

Fuck it.

I’d been on my canoe a thousand times.

I could get in the water.

I peeled my shirt over my head, ignoring the aching that wanted to remind me of my place.

My pace increased as I hurried to meet her where she bobbed in the water.

Her smile was enormous, blue eyes taking me in like she’d just seen the light of day.

I shucked out of my boots and socks, then fumbled out of my jeans, leaving it all in a pile before I hustled to the end of the dock and jumped in, too.

Cannonball style.

Cold water swallowed me up as the momentum drove me under.

I was right. It was fucking freezing. But Tessa was right, too. It felt amazing.

Like bliss.

A small dose of liberation.

I felt it expand my chest as I floated beneath the surface for a second, in this place that was supposed to be my sanctuary before it had become no better than a burial ground.

Had hated these waters for the longest time, but I was remembering their freedom when I broke the surface.

Tessa giggled. “That was a straight ten. Bonified gold, baby.”

A chuckle broke free, and I pushed my fingers through my hair to toss back the wet locks from my face. “You think so, huh?”

“Absolutely. And not even like when I tell Gage it’s a ten when he’s doing karate. Like for real. The best cannonball I’ve ever seen. I think you missed your calling.”

Tessa tried to hold back her laughter.

I skimmed my palm across the water, sending a small wave of water sailing her way. It splashed her in the face.

She gasped, her eyes going wide, her feigned outrage leaving her spluttering. “What was that for?”

She immediately sent a wave right back. I turned to the side, and it splashed against my cheek. “Come on, take it like a man, Milo.”

Her eyes were wide.

“You take it.” I splashed her again.

Laughter rang.

Hers and mine.

Two of us treading water in the middle of my lake while we splashed and teased and laughed.

Our legs kicked beneath the surface.

Skin brushing skin.

A ripple effect.

And that feeling was there that I needed to deny.

What I needed to lock down.

Reject.

But my arm was reaching out, and I snatched her by the wrist and drew her to me.

Surprise flittered through her expression before she exhaled a happy sound.

Her body was pressed to mine as my palm found her cheek, and she stared up at me with this awe like I could be the man I’d once attempted to be.

Hesitation warred. What was I doing?

And she was whispering, “It’s okay, Milo. While we’re in this, why can’t we make each other feel good? Be there for each other? In every way?”

That was one second before my mouth was crashing against hers.

My hand tangled in her wet hair, and my tongue dove in on a hunt for hers.

While we’re in this.

Liar.

Think we both knew.

We knew that none of this was going to come without consequences. That this was impossible. That my heart didn’t belong to me.

Still, I kissed her like I meant it.

Devouring this woman who’d awoken a dead place inside me.

Tessa giggled into my mouth, then she drew away and sent another wave of water splashing into my face.

“Oh, you’re gonna pay for that,” I warned.

Her smile was soft, those freckles alight. “Let’s see it, mountain man.”

I dunked her head under water.

Just a tiny, playful shove.

She bobbed up, her mouth flapping for a breath. “Oh, that was a low blow. You’re going down, buddy.”

She jumped on me, throwing her arms around my neck and trying to drag me under.

The two of us were tangled.

Wrestling.

Teasing and playing. Free.

I hadn’t had a moment like this in so long.

Maybe in forever.

Because I’d never been with someone quite like Tessa McDaniels.

This wild little thing with the softest spirit.

One who right then was making mine sing.

She shoved off me and began treading away, that smile dancing all over her face.

“Where do you think you’re going, Little Dove?” Words were abraded, harsh with the need she’d spun up in me.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Tiny Tease.”

Redness flushed her face, my favorite fucking color.

“Is that what you think I am, Milo Hendricks?”

“I think you’re teasing me with what I can’t have. With what I can’t keep.”

“Who said you couldn’t have me , fiancé ?”

She drew the last word out as she swam around the end of the dock and toward the beach. When she got to the depth where she could stand, she began to clamber out of the water on her feet, more and more of that tight body exposed the higher she got.

Fuck.

She was gorgeous.

A mind-bending beauty that messed me up.

Heart shattering, and that didn’t bode so well when mine was already in pieces.

The girl nothing but a goddess, who giggled when she looked at me from over her shoulder. “Come and get me.”

Like I said…diabolical.

I followed because she just might have a leash around my neck. My strokes were fast as I swam before I was able to stand. I rose up, coming out of the water.

From where Tessa stood on the bank, she gasped, and the playful energy between us shifted.

Charged.

Loaded.

Dense and teeming with everything I was supposed to be refusing.

“You steal my breath, Milo. Did you know that? Did you know the first time I met you I froze, my lungs locked because I’d never seen a man who affected me like you?”

“Tessa,” I warned.

“It’s true.”

I slowly eased the rest of the way out of the cold water, the warmth of the sun skipping across my wet skin.

Or maybe it was her.

That heat.

The flames.

The burn that scorched me in a passion I’d never felt.

The sun rising on a darkened day.

“Thought I got punched in the gut the second I saw you.” The confession was thick as it rolled up my throat. “When you came waltzing into that club with your bright eyes and your big smile. With that sweet confidence. With that sexy body wrapped in a tight red dress. Did you know it then that it was my favorite color?”

“I might have imagined I figured it out that night.” Her words were choppy, laden with this need so dense I thought it would suffocate us.

“Never before had I been tempted. Not once. Not until you.” The admission curled through the air. “You make me feel something I never thought I’d feel again. In a brand-new way, and I don’t know how to fuckin’ deal with the truth of that.”

Air wheezed from her lungs as I edged up the lawn in her direction, the girl standing there, soaking wet, her pale, freckled flesh sparkling with the droplets that trickled down her body.

Her small tits were perfect beneath the red fabric of her bra, her nipples pebbled and peaked. Her underwear was soaked, and rivulets were rolling down her legs.

The rest of her exposed.

Her belly. Her chest. Her thighs. That thing that kept flaming in her eyes.

My cock hardened to stone, need trembling to my bones.

Her eyes drifted to my dick that was trying to burst out of my underwear.

“Tessa.” Her name rolled out on a bolt of lust.

She turned around like she was going to keep up this game.

She started to run, wanting me to chase her.

She squealed as I closed in on her fast, and I snagged her around the waist. The momentum sent us tumbling to the ground. The lawn was soft below us, and Tessa was on her hands and knees.

Giggles rang, and Tessa went to start crawling away like this was all in fun, then froze when I kissed a needy trail down the line of her back, mumbling as I went, “Is this what you want? You want me to chase you?”

She whimpered, and I pressed my nose to her skin, inhaling her delicious scent.

Strawberries and cream. The sweetest, most tempting thing.

“Is that it, Tessa, you want to do me in?”

“No, Milo, I don’t want to do you in. I want to make you feel alive, the same way you make me feel.”

A desperate moan rolled from her when I barely sank my teeth into the flesh of her round bottom, my fingers burrowing into her waist as I drew her closer to me.

Her perfect ass in the air was nearly more than I could take.

Desire radiated from her being, saturating her flesh.

“What do you need, Little Dove?”

“You. Just you.”

My finger slipped beneath the crotch of her underwear, and I drew the wet fabric to the side.

“Shit, baby, look at you.”

Her slit was pink and swollen, her silky arousal seeping out at the seam. I traced the tip of my finger through it before I watched myself drive the single digit in.

All the way until I was to the knuckle in her tight cunt.

“Your pussy is so sweet, Little Dove. Knew it was going to be.”

“Milo.” She rocked back.

Delirium.

That’s what I had to be suffering from.

No sense.

No rationale.

Just this girl and this moment and taking her to that heightened place where she wanted to be.

I drew my finger out and drove it back in slow, before I pulled it all the way out so my tongue could take its place. Using my hands, I spread her cheeks wide.

I devoured her.

Her clit.

Her pussy.

Her asshole.

Wanted to make every single one of them mine.

Fuck her. Keep her. Love her.

I squeezed my eyes closed at the barrage of thoughts, focusing on bringing her to the ecstasy that she kept affording me.

She mewled this desperate sound that landed like lust on my brain.

“Milo, please.”

I flipped her over onto her back, catching her off guard. She gasped in surprise before her hips were jutting off the ground as her heels dug into the grass.

Begging.

The girl dripping and pleading.

I angled back so I could rip her underwear down her legs, and there was Tessa, all spread out on my lawn, her chest heaving, her belly flat and quivering, her tits barely concealed by the red lace of her bra.

Her hair was stringy from the lake, spread all around her, red tendrils that snaked around her face.

A dark goddess.

A red siren.

My seduction.

My ruin.

So fucking sweet when she looked up with those eyes that pierced me through.

Sharp as a blade.

Deep as a knife.

“Take me.”

“Not gonna fuck you, Tessa, but I’m going to make you fly.”

I gripped her by the hips and lifted her high, hooking her legs over my shoulders as I dove back in. My tongue drove deep into the well of her body before I changed course so I could suck and lap at her engorged clit.

I plunged two fingers into her pussy.

Deep, deep, deep.

Her nails dug into the soft soil of the grass like it could keep her grounded. “Please.”

My cock was so fucking hard, this sweet thing so tempting. My free hand curved around the top of her thigh, and my fingers burrowed into the flesh while the others stroked deep inside her body.

I wound her to the place that had her writhing.

Her head swished back and forth, and her pleasure became something tangible in my hands.

Took only a minute for her to come unglued.

For bliss to break. For this treasure to crack.

Her walls tightened around my fingers when the orgasm blew through her body.

Tessa soared and flew.

Every muscle in her body trembled.

That rapture seeded way down deep.

Air rasped from her lungs, and she was nearly levitating from the ground as her pussy throbbed around my fingers.

I was the fool imagining it was my cock.

What it’d be like to just let go.

Get lost in this girl.

In her sweetness. In her belief. In the faith she kept pulling out from the wreckage like everything broken could once again belong to me.

I couldn’t go there.

Couldn’t.

I wouldn’t make it back.

Instead, I shoved down my underwear to my thighs, and I stroked myself while Tessa watched and writhed and whimpered at the sight.

“Tessa.” It was a twisted prayer getting loose of my soul as I dumped all over her belly.

We both struggled for breath, to come back down to reality.

A second later, Tessa flung an arm over her eyes, hiding her face as she let go of a wispy giggle. “Oh my God.”

“Are you going to get shy on me now, Little Dove?”

I reached out to tug at her arm so I could look at her, my chest stretching tight at seeing that adorable smile tugging at the edge of her lips.

“Where did you get that magic mouth, Milo Hendricks?”

A chuckle rumbled free because Tessa McDaniels surprised me at every turn.

“Funny, I was thinkin’ the same thing about you just last night.”

Everything about her went tender, and she reached up and set her palm on my cheek, her thumb soft as she ran it under my eye. “Well, we can’t deny it, now, can we? It’s a fact. We make a really great team.”