Page 48 of Curveball
“But I’m what you want, aren’t I, Palmer Girl?”
Chapter 16
Palmer
My body is on fire, arousal flushing my skin a brilliant hue and heating me all the way through to my pulsing core. Max’s fingertips are magical, gliding and roaming, and with his back to the deck area and the width of his shoulders blocking anyone’s view, they sneak beneath the edges of my swim suit and touch bare skin. I haven’t felt rough male hands on me in too many years, and his are extraordinary.
His face is near my hip and I reach out to cup his fuzzy jaw, stretching my thumb to trace his top lip, then his bottom. Without warning, he opens his mouth and draws it in, trapping it within the gentle pressure of his teeth and circling its tip with his tongue. My gaze is bound to his, the bright blue irises a reflection of the glittering pool.
The suction of his mouth increases, his tongue lapping the pad of my thumb at the same time his forefinger dives under the band of my bikini bra and makes contact with my erect nipple. The onslaught of sensation darts straight to my core.
“Hey, Mom,” Dylan yells out. “You should get out of the sun or we’re going to need to slather you all over with aloe lotion.”
All core darting activity ceases immediately.
“Ah, fuck,” Max groans out loud, and my thumb slips from between the warm, wet pressure of his lips.
I peer across the length of the pool to find my son still lounging on a chaise under an umbrella, rapidly thumb-typing on his phone.
“All right, thanks,” I respond to him in my hoarseI was so closevoice that I would never in a million years expect to use with my son.
Max pulls his finger from under my top and the loss is acute, but then his hand slides over the sun-warmed skin of my abdomen on the way to clutching the edge of my mat, and my flesh stings. He drops his forehead onto his hand and lets out a wry chuckle.
“The last time I got cock blocked, I was in college.”
I have to laugh. Mine’s a pathetic sound, though. One that matches the wretched ache in my lower body.
“Is it too late to put him up for adoption?”
“Sorry, babe. I think we’re stuck with him.”
He places a kiss on the inside of my thigh, as far up as he can stretch.
“Next time, this is where I start.”
“Sounds like a perfectly reasonable plan. Do I have a say in where you finish?”
He grins, and it’s playful and devilish all in one wide, dimply smile.
“You always have a say in where I finish.”
Then, he presses his fingers to the skin of my shoulder and then between my breasts.
“Ouch!” I let out a sharp sigh. “Why is he right?”
Like a lifeguard rescuing a swimmer, Max pulls me and my mat to the shallow end, where I slide off without a splash. My hair is braided down my back and damp, possibly from pool waves splashing up on me when he was playing ball with the kids. He climbs out first and hands me a towel that I wrap around my hips. He leaves his board shorts on to dry in the sun.
“Do you want a fresh drink?” He points to the can in my hand.
I look down at it and nod. “Thanks. This was warm before the whole”—I drop my voice to a whisper and bob my eyebrows—“tongue thing.”
He barks out a laugh and takes my nearly empty can to the outdoor kitchen, then brings a fresh one to me in the shade beside Adele.
Then, he gets to setting up lunch.
It’s getting to be mid-afternoon, the sun still high in the sky. “Anybody ready for food?” he yells out to our crew in general. “Burgers are ready.”
“I’m hella starving, Daddy!” Nat reports from under the straw beach hat shading her eyes, whining like she should be the poster child for neglected children around the world rather than the player leading in RBIs for her school’s championship softball team.
