Worth the Fall (Sugar Mountain #1)

LET’S GET OUT OF HERE

THOMAS

I wanted to scratch my eyeballs out of my damn head. Matthew had brought Brooklyn to our family dinner. He’d brought her here after I warned him not to cross any lines with her. Were they dating now? Hooking up?

My dad had called her his date. HIS. DATE.

The screen door slammed from somewhere behind me, and I didn’t give a shit who had followed me out here. I’d write everyone off and only have Clarabel from this point forward in my life if I needed to. She’d never be this cruel to me.

“Thomas.”

Brooklyn.

Apparently, I did give a shit who had followed me out here. I turned so quick on my heel that dirt spit up behind me.

“You shouldn’t have come here with him,” I sneered as red-hot anger filled me.

“Then, you should have invited me yourself,” she fired back like she was pissed at me for some reason. And maybe she was?

I wanted nothing more than to kiss her in this moment, but had she kissed my brother with those lips too? The thought filled me with so much jealousy that it wouldn’t surprise me if I cut myself and saw that my blood had turned green.

“Why are you with my brother? Are you dating him? Fucking him?” I said the last word with as much venom as I could muster. It was unlike me to be so out of control, but this woman...

“I would never do that. You want to know why? Because the only person I want is you, you idiot!” She shoved at my chest, but it was weak, and I barely moved an inch. “But you keep avoiding me and making me feel like I’m doing something wrong. I’m trying to not feel like a bad person for wanting to move on, but when you say nice things with your words and then take them all back with your actions, you make me feel like I am.”

“I was giving you space!” I shouted back before I let her words resonate and settle inside of me.

“Who said I wanted space?” she ground out, her head shaking like I was the most insane person she’d ever encountered.

“You did,” I groaned, running a hand down my face.

“When the hell did I say that?” She propped out her hip and stuck her hand on it and waited. “I never said I wanted space. Did I?” She tapped the side of her head with her finger and stared up at the sky. “No, I most certainly did not. I would remember asking you for that. And I didn’t. Nope. Did not ask for space.”

She kept talking out loud and in circles, basically repeating the same thing, but even if she hadn’t said those exact words, she’d alluded to it. I wasn’t an idiot who couldn’t read between the lines. I was trying to be respectful.

“You said that you hadn’t forgiven yourself. That you still felt guilty over your marriage ending. You said you needed more time. ” I repeated all the things she’d said to me at my house the other night, emphasizing the part about time.

“ You’re the one who said I needed more time,” she countered. “ You said that. Not me.”

“And you agreed!”

I took a step closer to her without even realizing it. She didn’t take a step back or move away. We were like two magnets being pulled together by some invisible force. Resisting would be pointless.

“Just pick a damn side already, Thomas. Either you want me or you don’t. I can’t keep trying to figure it out.” She threw her words at me like darts, each one hitting its mark.

“That damn mouth.” I took a single menacing step toward her, my chest heaving with our exchange. Our faces were inches apart. I could taste her breath—she was so close. “It drives me crazy,” I said as she looked up at me with those big green eyes.

“Do something about it then. Shut it up. Stick something in it. Jesus, Thomas, put me out of my misery already,” she begged.

Instead of verbally battling any further, I decided to give in.

It was time. But there was still one more hurdle I needed to clear before I crossed this line once and for all and never took it back.

“I can’t do halfway with you, Brooklyn. Not when I have a daughter who adores you. Not when I feel the same way too. And if this is just physical for you, like you need to fuck me once and get it out of your system, that’s not enough for me, and I won’t do it.”

“Just...” She paused before my words sank in. “Physical for me?” she repeated. “You think I don’t want more than just a wham, bam, thank you, ma’am ?”

“Well, do you?” I asked, needing her to give me the right answer. I felt like my heart might fall right out of my chest if she gave me the wrong one. Vulnerability sucked, but I was already in too deep to get out.

“Are you saying you don’t want to have sex with me?” She was teasing me. And avoiding the one question I was desperate for her to answer.

“I want you, Brooklyn; don’t get me wrong. I want to fuck you in every way possible, and I plan to, but it’s more than that. So much more. And I need to know it’s more for you too.”

“It is,” she said, but it came out in a whisper, which made me feel like she was unsure.

“Are you sure? You don’t sound sure.” I pushed her harder.

“I’m sure. I want more than just sex with you, Thomas. And I’m not going to feel bad about it anymore because I’m not doing anything wrong by wanting to be with you and Clara,” she said, and I knew half of those words were for her benefit and not mine.

My poor, sweet, tortured girl.

“No going back after this,” I said as I took her face in my hands and punished her mouth with my own.

My tongue snaked inside, claiming what I wanted as one hand moved to her neck and squeezed lightly. She moaned with the pressure, and my other hand immediately moved to her ass and held on tight. Brooklyn leaned into me, her hips grinding in slow circles before someone cleared their throat and reminded us both that we weren’t alone. How easy it was to forget.

We broke away, and I glanced over my shoulder to see my whole family standing at the door, Patrick’s hand over Clara’s eyes as she struggled to get away.

“Guess we’d better get back in there,” I suggested, and Brooklyn’s cheeks turned red.

“I am hungry,” she whispered before reaching for my hand. I interlocked our fingers and held on tight.

When we walked through the front door, Clara’s eyes locked on to our joined hands. “Are you boyfriend and girlfriend now?”

I swung my head to look at Brooklyn, who stood there, grinning. “What do you say, Waffle Princess? Need a prince?” I asked, and Clara giggled at my use of her nickname.

“Hmm.” Brooklyn shrugged. “What do you think, Clara? Should I say yes?”

This woman. I knew exactly what she was doing... and so did she. She had the cleverest way of incorporating my daughter into things without making it obvious to her.

“Yes! Say yes!” Clara clapped in her signature excited move. “I knew my love spell would work! I told you, Daddy!”

Brooklyn faced me, and I told her I’d fill her in on that later.

“I guess it’s a yes then,” she said.

I kissed her in front of everyone. My daughter included.

“My work here is done.” Matthew patted himself on the back as he pulled out his chair, sat down, and took a drink.

“And mine’s just starting,” Patrick said, and I looked at him, thoroughly confused as to how my relationship affected his life. “Clara, do you want to spend the night tonight?”

Ahhhh. My two brothers are evil geniuses.

Her little mouth formed an O as her eyes whipped right to mine. “On a school night? Can I, Daddy? I have my own room at Uncle Patrick’s, remember?”

“I remember,” I said before nudging Brooklyn with my arm. “Want to have a sleepover of our own?” I said quiet enough that Clara couldn’t overhear.

On a school night? she mouthed while nodding her head gleefully.

“Can I, Daddy?” Clara asked once more, and I noticed Jasper asleep at her feet.

“You’re trying to make her like you best with this whole own room thing,” Matthew piped up.

My dad quickly agreed with him. “It’s not really fair.”

“I have a room here too, Pops,” she said, even though her room at my dad’s was my old room, growing up, so technically, we shared it. “Just not with Uncle Matthew.”

“Yet,” Matthew shouted. “I’m going to build you a whole damn house,” he promised, and she started laughing like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard in her life.

“I’ll drop her off before school in the morning, okay?” Patrick redirected the conversation, and I nodded in agreement.

“Thanks,” I said, and he shrugged me off like it was no big deal, but it was.

This was a huge fucking deal, and everyone at the table knew it... except my daughter.

D inner took too damn long. I’d wanted to skip it the second Brooklyn said she’d spend the night, but we couldn’t be that obvious. At least not while my daughter was watching our every move.

And she was. Her little brown eyes were laser-focused on every single touch between Brooklyn and me. She giggled constantly and clapped without any reason until I realized that we were the reason, Brooklyn and I.

The conversation flowed around the table, although I couldn’t tell you a single thing anyone talked about. There was a lot of laughter, too, but again, I couldn’t tell you why or what about. My mind refused to focus on anything, except getting out of there and getting Brooklyn alone. Hell, I barely remembered eating.

A tight squeeze on my thigh had me glancing at the woman next to me.

“You okay?” she asked.

“I want to leave,” I said, and apparently, I said it louder than I’d intended because my brothers and dad all started laughing.

At me.

“Go already. We got this.” My dad waved me off, and I think I jumped out of my chair so fast that it almost toppled over.

“Where are you and Miss Brooklyn going, Daddy?” Clara asked from her seat, still holding her fork.

Shit.

If I told her we were going home, would she want to come with us? And how could I tell her she wasn’t invited? It was her home. I was her dad. She couldn’t not be allowed to be there.

“Your dad and Brooklyn are going to spend some time alone,” Patrick piped up, clearly trying to help.

“And do what?” she asked, and I heard Matthew bite back a gruff laugh.

I shot him a look as I walked over to where my daughter sat and dropped to my knees. “I’m going to take Brooklyn to our house and maybe watch a movie. You think that would be okay?” I couldn’t lie to her.

Clara nodded her head like she was completely unbothered. “I think me and Uncle Patrick will watch a movie too. Maybe we can watch the same one, but at different houses.” She giggled.

“Maybe. Be good for your uncle, okay?”

“I will. Promise.” She leaned in her chair to wrap her arms around my neck. “Love you, Daddy. Love you, Miss Brooklyn,” she added without warning, and I felt the whole room freeze.

I could have sworn that everyone collectively held their breath.

“Love you too,” Brooklyn responded so easily that I almost believed that she did.

Pushing up from the floor, I turned around, my eyes wide as I reached for Brooklyn’s hand, and I left with her before anyone could say anything else. Once we were out the back door, I stopped walking and grabbed her face with both hands.

“I’m sorry about that. She’s never done that or said that before. Are you freaked out?” I asked when, clearly, it was me who was freaking out.

Brooklyn simply smiled. “I’m okay. She has a big heart. We shouldn’t act like she did something wrong by sharing it with me.”

A lump formed in my throat. This woman constantly caught me by surprise. I leaned forward, my lips taking hers. Her body melted against mine, and I knew my arms were the only things holding her upright.

“Take me home,” she breathed out at the same time I said, “Let’s get out of here.”

The drive back to my place would take less than ten minutes, but you’d never know it by the way I squirmed against the driver’s seat, my dick pressing against the zipper of my jeans. No matter how many times I shifted or tried to adjust the damn thing, it wouldn’t calm down.

The big guy knew what was about to happen. He was just as excited as I was, and I couldn’t blame him. Every time I glanced over at the passenger seat to look at the red-haired goddess sitting next to me, she was watching me, her eyes filled with a desire that I planned on quenching for as long as she let me.

Once I parked the car, closed the garage, and walked into the house, it was on. Our mouths crashed together in a passion-filled exchange of tongues and nipping. We moaned. She hopped into my arms, her legs wrapping around my waist, and I thought I might come apart right then and there, like a scene out of American Pie .

“I want you so fucking bad, but our first time will not be on the granite countertop in my kitchen,” I said as I kissed her neck, my tongue following the soft lines toward her jaw.

“How about the second?” she teased, her hand running along the length of me, and my knees almost buckled.

“Upstairs. Now.”

I smacked her ass, and she started running. Only once she was at the top of the stairs did she stop and turn around.

“I’ve only been in Clara’s room. I don’t even know where yours is,” she said, and I picked her up, holding her tight as I carried her into my sanctuary.

I placed her on the top of my bed and stared at her, lying there, until she started squirming under the weight of it.

How many times had I imagined this scene? How many times had I wished she were in this exact position? Too many to count.

“Thomas, you can’t look at me like that.” She was uncomfortable.

“Like what? Like I’m about to take my time and get to know every inch of your body? Or like you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and I can’t believe you’re really here?”

She grabbed a pillow and held it over her face as she said something, but it was too muffled to make out. I climbed onto the bed and straddled her, removing the pillow slowly as I leaned down to press a kiss to her lips.

“I’ve dreamed about the things I want to do to this body. The way I want to make you feel. I haven’t wanted anyone in so long, Brooklyn, but I can’t seem to stop wanting you.”

Confessions.

I’d give them all to her if she asked.

“I’ve dreamed about this moment too.” She sucked in her bottom lip, as if the admittance embarrassed her.

This softer side of Brooklyn was fucking adorable. She was typically so mouthy and sarcastic.

“We cross this line, and we’re together. We’re dating. You’re not single anymore. Are you sure you’re okay with that?” I readjusted my body to take some of my weight off of her.

I knew that I was basically asking what I’d already asked her at my dad’s house, just in another way, but my insecurities had shit timing sometimes.

“I’m all in,” she said sweetly, and it was everything I needed.

I started kissing her again, my hands roving the curves of her body.

Breaking the kiss, I rolled over and made my way down toward her feet, where her shoes still remained. I slid her shoes off, one by one, before peeling off the socks underneath. Pink toenails greeted me, and my hands gently started to rub each foot, applying pressure in all the right places. She moaned, and her mouth dropped open.

“Oh my God. That feels amazing,” she said breathlessly.

I wondered if that dickhead ex-husband of hers had ever given her a massage before. I’d decided that he was way too selfish to think about pleasing her and went back to work.

I kissed the top of her foot as I applied pressure in long strokes before rubbing in small circles. When I tried to move my hands higher and get underneath her jeans, I found them unforgiving.

“Off,” I said as I attempted to undo the button and lower the zipper.

I’d need her help to get her out of them anyway. She shimmied and wiggled as I tugged them off, my breath catching when I caught sight of her black lace panties and the shape of her thighs.

“You’re a goddess,” I complimented, and the red in her cheeks deepened.

“You kind of make me feel like one.”

“Good.”

Roaming back to her calves, I alternated between massaging them and kissing her bare skin. She smelled like vanilla, but tasted like heaven. I tried so damn hard to stay down there and continue giving her pleasure with my hands, but all I could focus on was her black lace panties and what I knew was waiting underneath.

My fingers crept up the length of her leg and brushed along her inner thigh. Her hips bucked involuntarily, and I watched as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. When I touched the outside of her panties, her mouth instantly opened, and her breath started hitching as she refocused on me.

Sliding them to the side, I caressed her clit before slipping a single finger inside. She was so fucking wet. Pulling my finger out, I put it in my mouth, tasting her. She gasped at what I’d done, but I was already diving in, headfirst, ready for more.

I settled between her thighs, her panties still pulled to one side as I tried my damn best to tear them right off. My tongue hit her pussy, and we both moaned at the same time. Her hands reached for my head, her fingers holding me in place. As if I planned on leaving. I was about to feast on this woman until she came on my tongue.

“You taste amazing,” I breathed out hot against her clit as my tongue lapped up her sweet juices in long, slow, deliberate strides.

“My God, Thomas. Just like that. Don’t stop,” she begged, her fingers squeezing even harder against my skull.

I just fucking ate her more veraciously before adding a finger to the mix. I fucked her with my finger and tongue, and I could feel her orgasm building from deep within. Her pussy gripped me from the inside, squeezing and releasing as I sucked her clit and licked like my life wouldn’t exist without this.

“I’m going to come.” Her declaration came out garbled. In broken sounds that only spurred me on more.

My finger worked faster, and my tongue pressed harder, licking with more and more fervor. And when her body started to shake and quiver around me, I pulled my finger out and gripped her hips with both hands to keep her from pushing me away in the process. I ate her until the quaking stopped and her breaths came out like she’d just finished running a marathon.

Wiping my face with the back of my hand, I peered up at the woman who was staring back at me, her chest heaving underneath her sweater, which she was still wearing.

“That was life-changing,” she said, and I laughed as I maneuvered to sit up.

“Can’t wait to do it again,” I admitted because pleasing Brooklyn was so damn gratifying.

“I’d really like to return the favor.” She tried to reach for me, but I scooted out of the way and ended up standing next to the bed instead of where I’d just been lying on top of it.

If she put my dick in her mouth, there was no way I wouldn’t come straight away. Couldn’t have that.

“Next time.” I tried to dissuade her, but she pouted, her bottom lip jutting out. “I need to be inside of you.”

“Well, when you put it that way.” She grinned before moving her almost naked body off the bed to stand with me. “Let me help you get these off.”

I stood still while Brooklyn undressed me, her eyes taking in my body, her lips pressing kisses against my chest and stomach as she pulled my shirt off and dropped it. She followed the happy trail of hair down to my jeans before unbuttoning them and kissing way too close to the big guy.

It had been a long time since anyone else had touched me. I’d been dating myself for years now.

She commanded me to sit as she pulled off my shoes, quickly followed by my jeans. Then, she demanded that I stand, and I obeyed like the good boy I was, in nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs.

“You still have too many clothes on.” I reached for her sweater and removed it, adding it to the pile of clothes now growing on my floor.

My eyes scanned her curvaceous body, her full tits, narrow waist, and those hips.

“You really are beautiful, Brooklyn,” I said as I pulled her toward me.

My heart raced when her bare skin hit mine. She was so soft.

My hand caressed her back and traveled up her spine until I reached her bra and unclasped it like I’d been practicing the movement for the last twenty years. I was surprised I still remembered how to do it. I leaned down, taking her breast into my mouth, my tongue swirling around her nipple and sucking before doing the same thing to the other one.

“Thomas.” Her voice was breathless again.

I couldn’t get enough of her. Would never get my fill. I dropped to my knees and pulled down her panties once and for all. I hoped she never fucking wore them again as I pressed a kiss against her clit.

She shivered and took a step back before scolding me. “I can’t stand up straight if you do that.”

“Get back on the bed then.” I pointed.

She turned around, that perfect ass in my face as she crawled back on top of my bed and waited for me as a realization struck.

“Shit. I don’t have a condom,” I said.

“I’m on birth control if you’re okay with that,” she said.

I nodded because I planned on keeping this woman from this day forward. “I’m very okay with that.”

I removed my boxer briefs and watched as Brooklyn’s eyes zeroed in on my exposed dick.

“Bring that to me.” She was practically salivating, and fuck me, if that didn’t make me get even harder.

Moving onto the bed, I situated my body to hover over hers as her green eyes stared up at me, her red hair splayed across my pillow. Leaning down, I kissed her before traveling to her ear, her neck, and then back to her waiting mouth. Our tongues tangled, dancing together effortlessly, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if our hearts started to beat in the same rhythm—I felt that connected to her.

When her hand gripped my dick, I startled briefly, not expecting the contact. But her grip felt so good, her fingers gliding along the length of me as she guided me toward her entrance.

“Stop stalling,” she said as she greedily tried to move me inside.

When the tip of my dick hit the warmth of her, I couldn’t stop myself from pushing all the way in. She gasped with the action, and I felt her holding her breath.

“Breathe, baby,” I said, and she inhaled long and slow.

I started pushing in and pulling out, trying my best to keep some semblance of control when I knew that I was barely hanging on. She was so wet and tight and felt so much better than my hand. Every time I drove myself inside of her, I thought it would be the last. Each thrust of my dick caused her to make a sound of approval that was so fucking hot that I swore that would be the thing that did me in. And when her body moved with mine, her hips rolling and inching upward to help me reach places unknown, I felt myself about to break.

“Baby,” I ground out, my control waning.

“Come in me,” she begged, her hands reaching for my lower back and gripping me tight.

I did as she’d commanded, my dick exploding so hard that I saw stars like some sort of cartoon character. Coming down from the high of my orgasm, I thrust a few more times before rolling off of her and collapsing, my world still spinning.

“That,” I said between labored breaths, “was fucking perfection.”

“Your dick is magic. I want it all the time,” she said as she reached for it, and I twitched under her touch, still sensitive.

“Give me twenty minutes, baby, and I’m all yours,” I said with a grin.