Page 11 of Big Timber

“You’re like a live wire, Talia. I can feel your entire body humming under me,” he murmurs the sexiest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.

“What is this?” I feel dazed and unsure as I try to understand what’s happening right now—if he’s feeling anything close to what I am.

“This isus,” he responds after a moment. “This is your body understanding that you belong to me as it waits for your brain to process that. This is me, realizing what my brothers have with their Ol’ Ladies and knowing that you’re the home I’ve always wanted.”

“We just met—”

Those are the only words I get out before his lips crash down on mine again and the rest of the evening is spent kissing and discovering every inch of each other’s body.

Timber

I wake up with the sun in my face, knowing I’m alone. Rolling over intending to inhale the scent she left behind on her pillow, I feel paper against my cheek.

On a torn envelope, Talia let me know she ran to the store for groceries. Signed with a heart, I’m happy she thought to jot down her cell number, as we haven’t gotten that far yet.

I’m already grinning when I reach behind me to the bedside table to grab my phone. Several ideas pop to mind before I settle for the words in my first text to her.

Get back here. I want breakfast.

Just leaving the store. What were you thinking?

You. Sitting on my face.

In return, I get two emoji. One of a blushing face and the other of a runner. I’m hoping that second one means she’s getting her sweet ass back here on the double.

After I relieve myself, a picture in the room catches my eye and I cross to study it. It’s a candid shot of several of the extended Workman family, but I’m sure the person who took the time to print it on a canvas did so because of the threesome in the upper right-hand corner of the frame.

It’s Talia and her younger brother laughing alongside another man, and given his looks, he has to be their older brother. Tanner is shorter than Talia in the picture, which lets me know it’s from a while ago, but the playful friendship the three of them have is plain as day.

You need to call your sistera voice in my head prods my conscience. And I do. Diona is halfway through her first pregnancy, and I promised her and her husband that I would be the kid’s godfather.

Hearing the painful groan of the metal garage door, I take one last look at the photo before walking out to see if Talia needs any help, just in time to see Bill entering through the mudroom into the kitchen.

“Sorry. I thought you were Talia,” I say, feeling like an ass standing in front of him only wearing my boxers.

“Thought I’d stop by with the batteries for her garage door opener,” he explains, placing them on the counter even as he attempts to keep the frown off his face. “She never remembers to buy them.”

“Hey! Can someone help me with the groceries?” Talia calls from outside and I step forward, only stopping when Bill holds his hand up.

“I’ve got this. Why don’t you find your pants?”

I’m torn between wanting to tell him that I’m going to make his little girl my Ol’ Lady or that I intend to be eating her pussy in the next ten minutes—but I bite my tongue.

I’ve known her less than a day, yet that’s long enough to know there’s no way in hell she’ll ever be mine without her family being a big part of our lives.Just because you never had one, doesn’t mean it’s a bad thingI think as I turn to do as he suggested.

They’re whispering as they unpack the groceries, both turning to look at me when I rejoin them.

“You want to stay for coffee, Bill?” I ask, winding my arm around Talia’s shoulders and laying a kiss on her temple.

“I shouldn’t,” he says, looking back and forth between our faces. “Tiny’s dragging me out to play that damn pickleball.”

I can’t help the snort I let out, feeling his frustration from six feet away. His eyes dart over to mine as if looking for sympathy.

“It’s ridiculous. Just tennis for old people, but then all these young people took it up, and it’s all the rage,” he continues, and I immediately regret that I felt the need to mark my territory a moment ago. The poor guy obviously came here hoping to hide out.

“You said you liked it better than golf, though,” Talia gently reminds him.

“I want to play racquetball,” he nearly shouts, dramatically throwing his hands up in the air.

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