Page 105 of Tips and Trysts

The coils of muscles underneath his skin shift, emphasizing a body well-adjusted to the outdoors—to being physical. His big hands are steady, dusted with dirt. And most profoundly of all, there’s a half-smile on his face when he hammers in the last stake.

It takes him tossing the mallet to the side for me to realize I may be seeing Everett Logan for the first time.

He finally notices me and chuckles. “I know that look.”

“What look?” I roll back onto my heels, shifting away from the pile of tent poles I’ve been assembling. “I’m not giving you a look.”

“And here I thought you never lied. You’re eye fucking me so hard that I should ask for a tip.”

I clamber to my feet. “Please. You give it up for free every time.”

Everett doesn’t respond though. His gaze has drifted down to my knees—my dirt-covered knees.

“Ugh,” I mutter, bending to dust them off.

“Leave it.”

When I see Everett’s eyes still locked on my legs, I frown. “Is this turning you on?”

He bobs his chin. “You thought you could stand in front of me in your slutty little cutoffs, knees covered in dirt from kneeling, and I wouldn’t want it?” He clicks his tongue. “I thought you knew I was a sick fuck. Unbutton.”

“Unbutton what?”

“Everything.”

I raise an eyebrow. “You’re asking me to get naked in the woods?”

“I wasn’t asking,” Everett answers before he flicks his chin.

Goosebumps immediately rise on my arms, but I go with it. Once I’m naked, wearing nothing but my piercings, Everett’s eyes take me in.

“Oh, princess,” he murmurs.

I’ve been in the business long enough to know what a guy needs to get off, so I know what Everett is going to say before he does.

It’s no surprise to me when he whispers, “Come here,” while cocking his middle and index fingers back, beckoning me.

And because I know what happens next, I slide my boots back on before I walk over. When I’m standing in front of him, hishands start at my shoulders. He cups them with sure palms before he drags his hands down my arms, skimming the raised skin on my scar before he stops at my elbows.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispers, hooded eyes flicking over my face. “You’re always so good for me. Better than good. You’reenough.”

I inhale, letting the gravity of his words sink in. Praise is foreign to me. It was always withheld when I was growing up, so I don’t quite know how to ask for it—or accept it. Everett is the only person who knows this about me, and inherently, he knows how much I need it. I nod.

“You’re enough and you’re everything to me. Everything.”

Everything.

I nod again, letting the silence speak for me. I let him know I can stand here and take his pretty words—and ask for more.

“All I want is to show you off.” His thumb caresses my skin, doting and gentle. “I’d give anything to show the world how special you are.”

When my lips curve into a small smile, he gets it. He knows I see him—understand him—and what I need is something only he has ever given me.

And because he gets it, his next words don’t surprise me at all: a whispered, “And such an insatiable slut,” while he drags the backs of his fingers against the side of my bare breast. “A little cum dumpster, waiting for it.”

Words have always been the pinnacle of importance to me, a weapon I could wield better than anyone I knew. They were the closest thing I had to an equalizer in a world that expected me to be diminutive.

I nod again, basking in Everett’s words—in his degradation and his praise living alongside each other. Nobody expects these words to fit, but they do. They truly do.

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