The Geography of Happiness (Mackenzie Country)

Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Terry

When I stepped into the kitchen, Spencer was standing with his back to me, staring out the window over the sink to the darkness beyond. Rain spattered on the glass, the panes rattling softly in the old wooden frames. The weather had taken a turn for the worse.

I pushed the door closed and Spencer looked over his shoulder, a frown etched on his forehead, guilt and regret swimming in his eyes. It was enough to make me reconsider and I hesitated, staying where I was.

“You’re still up,” I said, because I was intelligent like that.

His troubled gaze flicked on and off mine. “Oh... yeah. I was, ah, just... you know, tidying up. How is Hannah?”

“She seems good.” I took a tentative step forward. “A bit of a headache and a sore knee, but she ticked all the concussion boxes—right day, date, time, place, and so on.”

“That’s great,” he murmured, watching me closely. “ She’s great.”

That made me smile. “She is. And she’s promised to call if she needs to get out of bed, so...”

“Oh.” That little crease popped back up between his eyes. “I thought you were heading to bed.”

My gaze steadied on his and I took another step. “I changed my mind.”

Hope flashed, then died in his eyes. “Look, Terry. I owe you a huge apology for... before. You’ve been crystal clear about not wanting?—”

“Shut up.” I bridged the remaining distance between us, fisted his jersey, and pinned him against the counter. “I can think of a lot better things to do with your mouth than apologise for something we both know I wanted. Like kissing me.”

Spencer hesitated, then sighed and started to uncurl my fingers from his jersey. “I don’t want to take advantage?—”

“Advantage?” My eyes sprang wide and I jerked back, letting him go. “Now just you hang on a minute.” I put my finger to my chin and pretended to look thoughtful. “Nope. Still thirty years old. Still able to make decisions for myself. Still wanting to be kissed. Whaddya know?”

A loose grin stole over his face.

“Because let me tell you—” I flattened my hand to his chest. “—as far as health incidents go in the O’Connor household, this is by no means the worst.” I side-eyed him. “Or maybe you think you’re so damn irresistible that I wouldn’t be able to turn you down so you have to do it for me?”

“What?” He looked visibly shocked, and I had to swallow a laugh. “Jesus, Terry. What kind of guy do you think I am?”

I arched a brow and he chuckled.

“Okay.” He lifted his hands. “I’m sorry for second-guessing you.”

I smirked. “Apology accepted. I might be bent out of shape about a lot of things, but I am not confused about wanting you to kiss me again and maybe even... more.” I let that sink in and Spencer’s mouth curved up in a cheeky smile.

“More, huh?”

I glanced toward the hall and waggled my hand. “Within reason.”

His arm slid around my waist, then he surprised me by lifting me up onto the countertop. I glanced toward the closed kitchen door and Spencer followed my gaze.

“Are you sure this is okay?”

I slid my phone from my pocket to the countertop and then pushed it out of reach. “Hannah will call if she needs me, or Gabby will let us know. We’re good.”

Spencer ran the back of his fingers down my cheek and said, “Just so we’re clear, I don’t think you’re fragile or confused. I just didn’t want to presume.”

I shot him a narrow-eyed look. “Yeah, let’s just pretend that’s true.”

Colour rose in his cheeks but he said nothing.

“I’m so damn tired of worrying about tomorrow. Maybe I’ll regret this, but I don’t think so.” I traced the bow of his lips with my finger. “I trust you, and tonight I want something just for me, for us . I’m hoping you might like that too.”

He sucked my finger into his mouth and swirled his tongue around and around before letting it go. And how had I lived thirty fucking years and never had anyone do that to me?

“What happens in Oakwood stays in Oakwood?” His eyes danced and I nodded.

“If that’s all right with you? Let’s start with one of those kisses you seem particularly good at, then maybe you can do something about this.” I took his hand and pressed it over my burgeoning erection.

“Well now—” He leaned between my open thighs and nuzzled my ear, whispering, “—lucky for you, I have the perfect solution.”

“Lucky for me,” I whispered back and then counted to ten as he lowered his lips to my shoulder and squeezed my cock through my jeans. “Oh god.” My eyelids fluttered closed and my body came alive to his touch.

He kissed up my throat, then hovered his lips over mine. “You are so damn beautiful. Every time I look at you, I want to kiss you.”

Heat bloomed in my cheeks. “Yeah right,” I scoffed, leaning in to nip his lips. “I’m a single, neurotic, business-owner dad and inexperienced-as-hell lover. I live in a tiny town a million miles away, with zero life and not a lot else going for me. You, on the other hand are this confident, experienced, handsome, successful professional. And did I mention experienced? You’re seriously charming and you could have any man or woman you wanted.”

Spencer held my gaze. “I want you . And besides, I live in a small town with zero life outside work—if you don’t count hookups, which I don’t cos they mean fuck all—and I’m too scared to let anyone close in case they want too much from me.”

A smile tugged at my lips. “That’s not as reassuring as you seem to think it is.”

He laughed and slid his hands around my neck. “You are the exception to the rule. Now come here.” He began pressing butterfly kisses to my face, my hair, my eyes, my nose, anywhere he could reach. “I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you at the airstrip.” He brushed our noses together. “And now I have you. How fucking lucky is that?”

He crushed our mouths together and the world disappeared into the spell of everything Spencer Thompson until he was done and I was left breathless and wanting more.

“Damn, you’re good at that.” I tipped my head back to look him in the eye. “I know I sounded flippant about the whole inexperienced thing, but the truth is, I don’t know how far... I mean... I don’t think I can...” I sighed. “See, I’m crap at this. It’s not too late to change your mind.”

An outrageously filthy smile played on Spencer’s lips. “I think we should keep things really simple, so don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

It was strangely all I needed to hear. It seemed crazy to trust him, and yet I did. “Yeah, I can do simple.”

“Excellent, then—” He lowered his mouth, his hot breath washing over my lips. “—how about we start... here?” His lips crashed over mine, his tongue sliding into my open mouth, hungry, hot, demanding, and sexy as hell. I was right there with him, all pretence gone that we were still just playing around. His tongue fucked into my mouth and I met him stroke for stroke. My legs wrapped around his hips, his hands under my arse, his fingers digging deep enough to leave a mark. And still the kiss went on and on, until somewhere deep in my heart, a lock snipped open.

As if he’d heard, Spencer groaned and tugged me closer, until I was teetering on the edge of the granite. All so that his tongue could delve even deeper, although I wasn’t sure how. I waited for the dust to rise from all those nooks and crannies that hadn’t known they were alive, that something as exciting as this was even possible. But if Spencer felt my inexperience, he didn’t show it.

Too focused on me.

Too . . . lost in me.

It was a giddy feeling, and I tried to carve the memory into my brain so I could relive the moment when I returned to Painted Bay and my quiet life of obscurity. If this was lust, sign me the fuck up. I nipped at Spencer’s lips and approval rumbled up his throat. He repositioned my arse and my cock brushed over his stomach. A whimper broke from my lips and I almost laughed. Jesus Christ, I’d turned into some cheap romance novel.

“Mmm, you like that?” Spencer’s mouth slid down my throat to my collarbone, nipping and licking and sucking until I squirmed under the delicious assault. “How about this?” He lifted the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head. Then he descended on my nipples one at a time in the same voracious fashion he attacked everything else.

Pleasure shot licks of fire all the way down to my cock, and it felt like my first time all over again. Then again, in many ways it was. My first sexual experience at fifteen hadn’t exactly been what you’d call memorable, and the next fifteen years, including my time with Amber, hadn’t exactly ripped the scales off my eyes either. I’d always figured it was me. That I simply didn’t fire that way.

The joke was on me.

Spencer kissed back up my chest and throat until he reached my lips and then plunged once more inside.

I’d just never found the right fucking key.

I cupped Spencer’s face in my hands and took control of the kiss, putting my lips on all those places I’d dreamed about when I thought I couldn’t, shouldn’t have him. The rough stubble on his jaw, the velvet lobes of his ears, his Adam’s apple that had mocked me for days every time he swallowed. I ran my nose through his hair, picking up coconut and lemon, and licked up his throat to catch the salty tang of sweat from his working day. And with every kiss and lick of my tongue, Spencer shuddered and groaned and told me how beautiful I was, how lovely, how hot, how irresistible.

To think I’d almost walked away. From him. From this . I’d been an idiot. I might not get to keep Spencer, but I would never forget the gift he’d given me. Spencer Thompson was busy changing me forever—one kiss, one whispered word of approval, one pounding heartbeat at a time.

“Jesus Christ, tell me I can I touch you?” He suckled on my earlobe and stars lit behind my eyes. “I’m dying here.”

I grunted something that I hoped passed for a yes since I couldn’t seem to form the actual word, and it did the job.

Spencer’s face appeared in front of mine, lips swollen, chin and cheeks slick with saliva, pupils blown all to hell. He’d never looked more beautiful, and without stopping to think, I grabbed his jersey by the hem and whipped it over his head, taking his checked shirt with it and dropping both to the floor.

Then I kissed him hard, bruising, desperate for him to understand what the moment meant to me. A golden fucking ticket. An answer to all the questions that had circled my brain for years.

When I was done, he leaned back and licked his lips, grinning. “Well, look at you.” His fingers feathered down my sides and across my belly, striking fire on my skin. “I think I like this bossy version of Terry.” He took both my hands and held my arms open, his eyes roaming my pale torso, making me blush. “But I like this even more. So fucking gorgeous.”

I ignored the flattery, too busy drooling over the tightly muscled torso on display right in front of me. Acres of light olive skin brushed with coarse dark hair just begged to be kissed, down and down to the thick treasure trail that disappeared into his jeans.

“Jesus, look at you.” My mouth ran dry and my brain packed its bags and headed south.

“You approve?” he asked in a quiet voice, and I’d have said he was fishing but for the nervous edge to his tone.

I caught his gaze and held it. “Hell yes, I approve. I can’t believe I get to touch you.”

His eyes darkened further. “As much as you like. Please.”

I didn’t need to be told twice and immediately ran my fingers through the thick hair on his chest, humming my appreciation while noting the plethora of small scars that dotted his frame. Each came with its own animal story, no doubt, and I found myself wanting to know every single one.

I pulled him forward to run my nose over his clavicle and up his neck, drawing the scent of him deep into my lungs. I could get used to this— the random thought skittered through my brain and I shoved it back into the shadows where it belonged. This was a one-time free pass, nothing more.

“You smell good.”

Spencer snorted at the unintended surprise in my voice. “You’re clearly a fan of Chanel’s Down and Dirty Country Edition with its unmistakable notes of dog breath and manure. I haven’t showered since we got back.”

I laughed. “And yet it works.”

He pulled me close. “I happen to like the way you smell too.” He kissed me again, taking it slow this time around, making me feel like there was nowhere else he needed or wanted to be. The Mackenzie’s most eligible bachelor.

I didn’t care. I’d take it. I wasn’t looking to be special. I’d known what this was when I’d walked back into that kitchen.

For now he was mine, and I returned to my explorations, my palms grazing the hard nubs of his nipples. Spencer gasped and rested his forehead against mine, his breathing fast and shallow, his eyes the deepest chocolate, almost black, his lips parted on a sigh. I smiled to myself. “You like that, huh?”

“Mmm” was all I got in reply.

I leaned forward and pressed my mouth to his, sliding my tongue inside but keeping it light and teasing. He groaned and did the same, the kiss falling into an achingly tender brush of hearts that sent my mind spiralling into wishes and dreams I had no right indulging.

His nipples tightened under my palms with every back-and-forth caress, but when I switched to run the backs of my fingers across the buds, he shuddered with pleasure. I made my way down to splay my hand across his soft, flat belly where all those coarse curls thinned into that tempting treasure trail. Then I ran the tips of my fingers under the waistband of his jeans and?—

“Jesus Christ,” he groaned against my bruised lips, then lifted his mouth to kiss the end of my nose before burying his face in the side of my neck, sucking and nibbling at the skin over my collarbone.

“Oh god, yes.” I angled my neck to give him room to work, my eyelids fluttering closed. But when my tunnelling fingers caught in the elastic of his briefs, Spencer jolted back, grabbing my wrists.

He exhaled slowly and gave me one of those crooked smiles I was learning to love. “Damn. Do that again and we’re gonna have a problem.” He leaned in and ran his nose up the side of my face. “I haven’t embarrassed myself for twenty years, but you’ve got me on a hair trigger.”

I leaned back and stared at him. My disbelief was clearly evident because he added, “I’m deadly serious. And I want this time to be about you, not me getting off at light speed, yeah?”

“This time?”

He grinned and kissed me before I could call him on the idea, and then when he began unzipping my jeans, I forgot about it entirely.

“You doing okay there?” He began to work my jeans over my hips, and the fact I managed a grunt and nod was a goddamn miracle.

But then common sense kicked in and I stayed his hand. “Hang on.” I reached for my phone but the screen was empty. We stood in silence for a moment but the house was quiet.

Spencer cocked his head. “You wanna go check?”

I grimaced. “Would you mind?”

“Of course not. Go. I’ll meet you on the sofa in the study off the lounge.” He winked. “It has a door, and I’m too old for all these hard surfaces.”

I chuckled and slid off the bench, whipping my shirt over my head before tiptoe-running back to Hannah’s room to find her sleeping like a baby. Ten seconds later I was back in the lounge and finding my way into the study.

Spencer was already there, dressed in just his jeans and socks, a blanket in his hand, and with a sexy-as-fuck come-hither look in those dark eyes. Shadows played on the wall as I entered, the room softly lit by a lamp on the large desk pushed against one wall, my phone and a tube of lube front and centre on a small coffee table next to the sofa.

My gaze lingered on the lube.

Decision made.

I clicked the door shut, pulled the shirt over my head, and dropped it to the floor. Then I made my way over, wondering who the hell was this man who looked exactly like me but felt a million miles from the man who’d flown into the Mackenzie just four days earlier. That man wouldn’t have dreamed of walking into the arms of another man he’d known so briefly. A man who knew more about him than almost everyone in his life. A man he... I was about to make love to because that’s exactly what I was doing. There was no pretending I wasn’t.

Spencer opened his arms and I walked right in. No kisses this time. We simply locked eyes as he unzipped my jeans and pushed them down over my hips and thighs to puddle around my ankles. I stepped free and kicked them aside, leaving me standing in my green chequered briefs and nothing else.

He reached for my hand and held it to the side while his gaze raked appreciatively over my body. “So fucking beautiful.” He shot me a lewd smile that set my balls humming, then ran his hand down my chest and over my quivering belly, stopping just shy of my straining cock. “All this creamy, lickable skin.” He pulled on the elastic waistband of my briefs and took a peek inside. “Mmm, uncut.” His gaze rose to mine and he winked. “My favourite.”

My cheeks flamed, because of course they did, and I huffed. “You’re ridiculous.”

“And you’re hot.” He sat on the couch, which put him eye level with my groin, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen anything so sexy. No one had ever reacted to me the way he did. No one looked at me like I was their favourite wet dream. Like just kissing me was a turn-on. Like they wanted to eat me alive.

No one, until this man.

Until Spencer.

And no one had ever set my body on fire the way he did.

Like he knew what I was thinking, Spencer looked up from his front-row seat to my dick and smiled. “You ready, hot stuff?”

I snorted at his ridiculousness but nodded. And with that, Spencer leaned in to nuzzle my dick through the cotton of my damp briefs, and a sound I’d never heard before fell loudly from my lips and ricocheted around the small room.

“Shit.” I slapped a hand over my mouth and Spencer chuckled but kept nuzzling, nudging and nosing my dick from one side to the other before mouthing my balls trembling underneath. But when his lips finally closed around my shaft and ran its length, dragging my briefs along for the ride, it was lights out and my eyes rolled back in my head.

“Oh, my fucking god,” I hissed, inadvertently thrusting up, causing Spencer to pull off.

“Shit! Sorry. I’m such an idiot.” I went to step aside but Spencer held fast to my thighs.

“You’re not going anywhere.” He kissed my belly through the green chequered nylon and then quickly slid down my briefs, freeing my cock, which promptly sprang up and slapped him on the chin.

It was so outrageous that we both laughed.

“And now—” Spencer composed him, pulling me down onto the couch and laying me flat. “—I want you to relax—” He slid to his knees and began peppering kisses over my face. “—and let me get to work—” He popped a kiss on the end of my nose. “—on this delicious cock.” He gave my dick a gentle squeeze and I’m pretty sure I whimpered.

Then he kissed me soundly and looked me in the eye. “If that’s all right with you?”

“Uh-huh.” I nodded enthusiastically. “Yes . . . please.”

He grinned at the pleading tone in my voice, squirted a little lube into his hand, and then fisted my cock, running his thumb over the dark head to catch the pre-come running from the slit. “Tell me how you like it?”

The question caught me by surprise. “Oh. Well, I...” I stumbled, finding it hard to think with his large hand wrapped around my dick. “I dunno. Any way you like is fine.”

Spencer raised a brow and simply waited.

“Okay, okay,” I grumbled, watching his thumb slide over my slit for a second time, a silken thread of pre-come attaching to the tip as it passed on its sexy way. “A hard grip and not too fast?”

He lifted his slick thumb to his mouth and painted his lips before licking them clean, his hungry gaze fixed on mine. “Hard and slow?” He smiled saucily. “I can do that.”

And I’d never felt so fucking turned on in all my life.

He took another swipe across my slit and offered his thumb to me. I blinked but didn’t hesitate to suck it down. His pupils blew wide and he dragged me in for a punishing kiss that set every cell in my body humming with pleasure.

This is it. It hit me in that moment. The powerful craving Judah and Leroy and Kane and everyone I knew talked about. This is it.

The kiss went on and on until Spencer finally broke away and swiped his thumb over my swollen lips. “What am I going to do with you?”

I had one or two ideas about that, but before I could share them, he shot me a wicked grin and lowered his mouth to my cock, swallowing it to the root.

My head dropped back and the moan that left my mouth was far too loud. A shirt hit me in the face, and I looked down to find Spencer watching me, bobbing up and down on my cock, saliva dripping from his chin, his eyes glazed, looking thoroughly debauched.

I shoved the shirt against my mouth and fell back onto the cushion, completely spellbound, to watch him work. A gamut of sensations rolled through my body as he cradled my balls in one hand and supported my cock with the other, sucking, licking, and nibbling at the flesh like he couldn’t get enough. A few minutes in and there was no way in hell I was going to last beyond an epically embarrassing timeline.

Nothing I’d experienced before had remotely prepared me for the storm that was Spencer Thompson—in my life and on the dry husk of the body I’d been dragging around with me for thirty years. I’d come alive under his touch, and a part of me was already grieving the loss when it came, as it inevitably would.

With Spencer’s mouth on me, I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, didn’t want to. And when the fingers cradling my balls tracked back to slide over my hole with an added tap, I jerked in place, a hum buzzing at the base of my spine, an unspoken need burning in my flesh.

Spencer caught my gaze and tapped again, and next thing, I was pushing down into the touch, sucking the tip of his finger inside, thick, hot, and insistent in my arse. I rode one and then two, as he sucked on my cock and drove deeper. Then finally, he curled them deep inside and electric sparks jolted my body and had me coming like a train down the back of his throat, thrusting and jerking through a deluge of pleasure. But always with my eyes on him and his on me as his finger worked my hole, his mouth on my cock until I was spent. He swallowed every drop and then licked his lips.

Before I knew it, I’d yanked him up, my mouth crashing over his, plunging inside so I could taste myself on his tongue, willing him to remember the moment.

Remember what we’d done.

Remember . . . me.

Breathless and sated, I pulled off and dragged him next to me on the couch. Then I turned and melted against his chest, burying my face in all that glorious hair, not sure I was ready to face his eyes, a storm of emotions churning in my heart. Disbelief. Gratitude. Boneless pleasure. And optimism for a future I’d never imagined, along with someone I had no right fantasising about.

If I’d looked him in the eye, I wasn’t sure I could hide it, not right then. Not with my guard down and my body gorged. I didn’t know whether I wanted to kiss him or punch him for awakening this thing inside me. This need. Nothing could ever be the same because I now had... expectations... and goddammit... hope.

And so, I clung tight, my face hidden, his lips in my hair, his breathing sharp and shallow in my ear, his demanding erection pressed hard against my leg.

Oh, hell no. Not on my watch. I might not be ready to push the boat out too far on the whole man-on-man stuff, but I could certainly handle that .

I raised my face to his and slid my hands around his neck. Then I kissed him, taking my time, raising the temperature between us, and when his cock thickened in reply, I slid to the floor and ran my hands down his belly, feeling goosebumps pop over his skin.

Then I unbuttoned his jeans.