Roots and Wings (City Limits #1)(60)

Well rested. Satisfied from the night before, but ready to go again.

I learned she was very affectionate as soon as she woke up, and often that was when she was the sweetest with her words. She was always pleasant, but catching her as soon as she woke up was like she hadn’t turned her sarcasm on yet.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like the smart-ass side of her, but I especially loved the mornings.

Sometimes we were at her cabin, other times we were in my bed. I liked both, but there was an element of having her in my bed with me that made it feel more like home.

She got into a habit of leaving me notes in my SUV if she had to leave earlier than I did, to go home, or to open the shop.

Some were sweet, because she’d just been asleep and was still only partially awake.

Things like:





V-


I’m so glad I was running late for dinner the night you moved to Wynne.





H


Or,





V-


I’m thinking about a sunset boat ride, but the boat is out of gas. Don’t buy any. I’ll get the wine. ;)





H


That was the day she’d gone shopping with Sunny in Browning. That night I found her waiting for me on her boat wearing a pale pink silk thing that made me ask her where she’d bought it, in case I was just too careless and ruined it completely on purpose.

The sex got better and better. She was bossy, and totally in control in everyday life, and so beautifully and confidently submissive to my every wish, my every move. Which only fueled me to please her more. Making her come harder. Louder. And over and over again, even when she swore she was wrung dry. When she’d say she could barely handle it, I pushed just a little further and she’d melt into my mouth, or my fingers, or my cock.

Our conversations were just as fun as they’d always been. She’d argue with me, or I’d argue with her, and then she’d wink, mouthing the words, “You’re so hot.”

She said she didn’t want to label us, and I didn’t push it, but she ended up being the one to call me her boyfriend in public first.

Sunny had a friend in town, from a different radio station, and we ran into them at the summer carnival.

“Hey, this is Julia, the friend I told you guys about,” Sunny had said as she walked up to us just as we’d finished eating our second corndogs.

Julia was petite and cute, but she had nothing on Hannah. And even though I hated that she was insecure at that moment, I also liked how she’d needed Julia to know I was hers.

“Nice to meet you, Julia. This is my boyfriend, Vaughn.” Then she grabbed my hand and didn’t let go for the rest of the night.

That evening, up against the shower wall in my bathroom—which she’d helped me tile—when I asked her whose boyfriend I was, she said, “You’re all mine, Vaughn, and I’m all yours.”

I lost it right then, pushing harder and harder into her until she said it over and over again. “I’m yours. I’m yours.”

Things changed after that night.

Up until then, we laid kind of low. We didn’t go up to the bar together on the weekends, not that either of us really wanted to. We tended to stick to ourselves.

We’d never talked about it, but it was fun and there wasn’t anything wrong with spending time getting to know each other in private. And as fast as our sex life took off, it was important that we spent just as much time out of bed as we did in it.

The weeks passed in a blink.

The days were hot; the nights were blistering.

We boated, and like it was the most natural thing, we began spending time with other people.

Together.

As a couple.

It was almost like she finally realized I really was hers, and it was safe to share. Safe to let people know she cared about me and brave enough to show people that she let someone care about her.

I was learning that in a small town, you protect what you hold sacred. For Hannah, what she protected the most was her feelings.

We’d been to Browning a few times with Sunny and it was great watching her interact with someone who was so completely different. At the same time, Hannah was changing a little, but enjoying all the new things she’d never tried.

Her dad still called me Astro, but he came fishing with us on a few occasions and we’d had a good time.

Dean still wasn’t warming up to me, but I couldn’t blame him. It was easy to see he was in love with her and was realizing that he’d lost his chance.

Hannah cared for him like a brother, so I made an effort to pretend I didn’t notice. I never thought it would ever come up, and, honestly, if he was kind to her, what did it hurt me? He wasn’t making her uncomfortable, from what I could tell, and he wasn’t a dick to me. He just didn’t say much of anything.

So when I’d asked Aaron to help me with the roof, and Hannah said Dean would help too, it caught me off guard.

The work went quickly that morning. Dean and I scraped off the old shingles without much trouble. And after catching up on some sleep, Aaron came around noon.

The roof didn’t have too much going on, which made it a pretty straightforward job.

The three of us worked, talked about baseball, and then the conversation turned to women.

Well, one woman.