CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR #3
I chuckled. Fuck, that was a good sign.
“Was it good?”
“Yeah, I just… I’ve never felt that before.”
And that right there? That answered what I’d been wondering—whether she’d ever made herself come before. She hadn’t.
Jesus Christ.
“They say lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place,” I said, sliding my hands up her thighs, squeezing, spreading her open again. “Let’s prove them wrong.”
She gasped as I lowered my mouth this time, skipping my fingers. My lips brushed against her, followed by my tongue. Just one flick, and she moaned.
I groaned, flicking my tongue over her clit again. Her head fell back, mouth open, thighs trembling around my shoulders, utterly lost.
I dragged my mouth away, moving up her body, burying my face in her neck. She smelled like flowers, and it felt like I was kissing spring itself, wild and fresh and intoxicating.
“I’ve wanted to touch you for a long time, little danger,” I murmured against her skin as I finally slipped a finger inside her.
“James…” she moaned, her fingers curling into the blanket.
I kissed her throat, then slid a second finger inside her. Her body jerked under me, her gasps turning into desperate little whimpers, and I knew she was close.
I curled my fingers inside her and bit down gently on her breast, sucking her nipple into my mouth and rolling it with my tongue.
Her fingers tangled in my hair, her nails lightly scratching my scalp, her whole body trembling under me.
I circled my thumb over her clit and lifted my head, crashing my lips against hers, swallowing every sound she made.
One hand stroked her nipple between my fingers while the other stayed buried between her legs, teasing her, pushing her higher.
“I… I’m feeling something…”
She arched, her body chasing the pleasure, hips rolling against my hand until her breath caught, then released in a deep moan as the orgasm crashed over her.
That sound shot straight to my cock, and I nearly lost it right then and there.
She smiled at me, still coming down from the high, still flushed, still wrecked in the best way.
“Good, huh?” I asked, amused.
She nodded, then slowly sat up, her gaze flicking from my mouth to my chest, then dropping to my stomach… and lower.
“I want to see you,” she said.
I stood, kicked off my boots, and yanked my shirt over my head. Sarah’s eyes stayed locked on me, drinking it all in, not missing a thing.
I slid the belt from the loops next, watching her the whole time. She sucked in a breath when I popped the button on my jeans and eased them down. But it was when my fingers dipped beneath the waistband of my boxers that she really went still.
She was staring so focused, I wasn’t even sure she was blinking.
And when I stripped them off, finally standing naked in front of her, her lips parted, and her skin flushed deep—cheeks, neck, chest… everywhere.
“So this is what you’ve been hiding under there all this time?” she murmured.
I bit back a laugh, shaking my head. Of course, those were her first words. That was so fucking Sarah.
I knelt on the blanket in front of her, my cock hard and aching to be inside her, but I waited, letting her take her time. Her hand started to reach for me but stopped halfway.
“Can I touch it?” She glanced from my cock to my eyes, then back again.
I nodded.
She licked her lips and closed the distance between us with her hand. The moment her warm fingers touched my tip, my head fell back and I groaned. She slid her fingers all the way down to the base, and every nerve in my body lit up.
I opened my eyes again and watched her as she watched me.
“James, uh… am I—” She clasped her hands in front of her, clearly nervous. Anxious.
I took her hands in mine and kissed her knuckles.
“You what?”
“I’m not too tiny for you?” she asked, eyes locked on mine. I’d never seen anything so pure in anyone’s eyes, not like what I saw in hers that night.
“You’re not too tiny for me. And I’ll be careful,” I said.
“Okay… but I still think it’s not gonna fit. You’re too big.”
Her eyes dropped to my cock, and I couldn’t help but laugh at her bluntness.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Oh, you think that’s funny? Easy for you to laugh. You’re not the one being threatened by death right now by a giant dick.”
I threw my head back and laughed even harder.
She shook her head, looking personally offended. “Well, I hope my vagina kills you in the process.”
I grinned, absolutely wrecked by this girl. “I hope it does too, baby.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring, but there was curiosity in her eyes now.
I reached for her chin, brushing my thumb along her jaw. “Sometimes I forget you’re only eighteen.”
“Is that bad? You’re only five years older than me. Michael’s two years older, and he’s got the brain of a five-year-old most days.”
“It’s not too much,” I said honestly. “It’s just the way you are. You make me happy.”
“I do?”
“Yeah, you do.” My hand slid over her thigh, her skin soft under my palm.
“Remember that night on the ranch, around the bonfire? Bruce was asking questions, but I didn’t answer.
I couldn’t. And then you stood up and told everyone that if I was there, I was one of you.
You didn’t care what I’d done or who I was.
You just let me in. You made me feel like I belonged. ”
She smiled, and I smiled too. She rested her hand on my chest, but the second her fingertips brushed over the thick scar above my heart, her smile faded.
“What happened here?” she asked quietly.
I looked down at her hand. She was tracing the scar like it held all the answers.
“Something I don’t like to remember.”
She kept looking at me, like she was waiting for more, but that was all I could give her.
“I don’t like mine either,” she said, scrunching her nose.
That made me smile.
“Which one?” I asked.
She had a few scars: one on her left wrist, two on her elbow, one across her right shoulder, and another on her right ankle.
She bent her knee and showed me a faint pink line just above it. The scar she got the day she hid in that cave.
“The new one,” she said. “I was cutting that apple you gave me, and then I heard voices. I didn’t recognize any of them, and I just got scared.
I didn’t even realize I’d cut myself until it started to hurt.
The knife slipped right through the apple and into me.
I screamed, and the voices heard me. That’s how they found our camp. ”
I reached out and ran my thumb along the scar. Hearing that story again, how scared she was when Michael and I weren’t there, made my chest tighten.
I leaned down and kissed the scar on her knee. Her being alone and hurt still eats me up inside.
“Any others?”
She pointed to one on her right thigh. A big one, hard to miss.
“When did it happen?”
“I fell off Lily at the ranch when I was fifteen and landed on a branch that sliced my thigh. Brian told me I was gonna die, and I believed him. He and Michael had a huge fight about it when Brian carried me back to the house. That was the first time my accidents actually scared me.”
I pretended I didn’t hear the part about Brian. He was the last name I wanted echoing in my head.
“You’re beautiful to me,” I said, my hand brushing the scar on her thigh. “And this scar? It just makes you even more fucking hot.”
I leaned in again and kissed the scar on her thigh slowly, from one end to the other. She sighed, sinking back on the blanket, her body reacting to every little touch of my lips.
I knelt on the blanket in front of her, my palms planted on either side of her body as I covered her with mine.
“James, wait.” She pressed a hand to my chest.
I paused. My eyes ran over her, like I might’ve crushed her somehow. “Something wrong?”
She pushed up on her elbows and reached into the basket beside her, rustling through the open chip bags.
I frowned, trying to hold back a laugh. “Sarah, now is not the time for snacks.”
She chuckled, pulling her hand back, but she wasn’t holding chips. She was holding a condom.
She handed it over, her fingers trembling slightly, and it was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.
This girl was amazing.
I raised a brow as I took it from her hand. “You were thinking about this when you came out here and waited for me, huh, little danger?”
She nodded, smiling. “I wanted to be somewhere that was just ours.”
I smiled back, pretending I wasn’t scared shitless of what I was feeling.
“Now this could officially count as a date,” she added with a wink.
I didn’t think much about how I had sex before.
On the road, no one did. No one expected another night, let alone a future.
If you made it to morning to fuck again, that was already a miracle.
Even back at the ranch, Chloe was always willing, but I didn’t want her.
I didn’t want anyone else. From the very first day on the ranch, there’d only been one woman in my head.
And now? She was right here.
I wanted this to last. I wanted her to feel good. I wanted to bury myself so deep inside her that I’d feel her for the rest of my life. I wanted to feel her even when she wasn’t there.
“Sarah, are you sure? I mean… we can wait.”
What the hell was I saying? I couldn’t wait any longer.
I was about to say something else when she cut me off. “It took you six months to kiss me. I think we’re already behind schedule.”
God, I loved that mouth.
“And you… you want this too?” she asked softly, a little shy.
“Fuck, baby, I’ve been dreaming about this since the day I met you. I’ve never wanted anything the way I want you.”
“James…” she whispered, her small hands resting on my shoulders. “I’ve never… I’ve never done this before.” Her cheeks flushed red, her voice soft and uncertain. “I don’t really know what to do… only what I’ve read in books.”
I cupped her cheek. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded. “With my life.”
With my life.