Page 35 of Tanner's Forever

I let out a soft laugh. “Tanner, it’s fine. I take longer to come. It’s completely normal that I don’t get off every single time I have sex.”

He’s still shaking his head. “Sweetheart, let me tell you something. Even if I can’t get you off during sex, I sure as hell am going to get you off in other ways. It’s not fair that I got to come and you didn’t.”

This whole thing is so new for me. With Judd, he didn’t really care if I got off or not. He thought a man coming was more of a “need” while a woman coming was more a “bonus”. On special occasions, he would take the time to make sure I had an orgasm. But other than that, he didn’t care.

And here Tanner is feeling bad that he didn’t get me off. He’s made me come more this weekend than Judd did in the last few years of my marriage. How sad is that?

Tanner pulls his hair back into a small bun before starting to make his way between my legs, but I grab his face to stop him.

“Fabio, as much as I want you to do that some more, I’m going to need some food.”

His face falls a little, and I can tell that he still feels bad. It really is unnecessary, though. The sex was still fantastic. It felt incredible, and no way am I complaining.

“Fine,” he pouts. “But later on, I’m making you come twice. No! Three times!”

“Oh, no!” I joke while throwing my hands up. “Threatening me with orgasms.”

Fifteen minutes later, Tanner is standing at my stove making fajitas. The smell of steak, onions, and peppers fills the air, and my mouth waters. Have I mentioned how sexy he looks cooking for me? I make sure to take a mental picture since I doubt I’ll see it again any time soon.

“Who taught you how to cook?” I ask. “Your mom?”

He throws his head back and laughs. “No. Definitely not my mom. She was the kind of mom who burned toast every time she tried to make it.”

“So, where did you learn?”

He looks at me and gives a crooked smile. “You’ll laugh.”

“Try me.”

“When I first started the job I’m at, I found myself eating fast food constantly. When I was on the road, I was eating at every greasy restaurant you can imagine. And when I’d come home, I didn’t know how to cook shit, so I ate a lot of the same. After a while, I just got sick of it. It was making me feel like crap, so I decided to learn how to cook. That way, at least when I’m home, I know that I can have a good meal.”

I listen to his story and narrow in my eyes at him. “That doesn’t really answer my question. You answeredwhyyou learned how to cook but not how.”

He rolls his eyes and sighs. “I watched a whole lot of Gordon Ramsay videos on YouTube, okay?”

I make good on my promise and don’t laugh at him. “Hey, I think if you are going to learn how to cook, why not learn to cook from the best?”

His lips pull into a big grin, showing his mouthful of pearly whites. “That was my thinking exactly.”

“I love watching all of his cooking shows while I make dinner. Well, the ones where he yells at people. The ones where he is nice just don’t hold my interest.”

He nods. “Same. It was a little weird following the tutorials and not hearing him call me a donkey along the way.”

“Tell me more about your mom,” I say, hoping to gleam more of what makes Tanner Samson tick.

“Tammy Samson is a character,” he says, looking up at me while he stirs everything in the skillet. “She’s the epitome of unlucky in love. She’s been married a handful of times, engaged just as many, and dated more than that. It was never that she was a bad mom, but motherhood took a backseat to her love life.”

“That sounds rough,” I say.

“Honestly, my brothers probably had it worse than I did. My oldest brother is about fifteen years older than me, and the other one is right in the middle of us. They both probably got it worse than I did. By the time I came around, she was a bit more stable. That’s probably why the other two hold more resentment toward her than I do, especially Duke, my oldest brother. He and Momma went round and round for years. They’ve made amends recently, but it was bad for a while.”

“Are you close to your brothers?”

He shrugs. “Pretty close, I guess. Closer to Devon than to Duke just because we were closer in age. Duke joined the military when I was like three years old, so he wasn’t around much while I was growing up. But we all try to hang out when we can. What about you? Any siblings?”

“I have an older brother, Wes. But he lives in Arizona now, so we don’t see him much. We still talk sometimes, but we aren’t close.”

“And your parents?”