Chapter 33
CHARLOTTE
The moment it happened, the exact second Trent stopped holding himself back, I felt it. It moved through him like a snap of heat, a shiver under his skin, or a breath he didn’t catch in time.
It sent a rush through me. My whole body went warm, a pulse that was low, deep, and hungry. Finally, I stopped being apprehensive that he was going to pull back again.
He’d been so careful with me ever since the very first time we’d been alone in that cafe back in Chicago, like he was constantly measuring his words and scrambling to put distance between us. Every now and again, that control had slipped. The kiss in the barn and last night, for example.
All along, I’d known why. Other thoughts and insecurities had featured too, of course, but mainly, I’d understood that it was because of all that bro-code nonsense.
The unspoken best friend’s little sister rule.
That ridiculous idea that I should somehow be preserved in a bubble just because of who my brother was to him.
It was stupid, patriarchal, and so painfully, eye-rollingly male.
But the second Trent’s restraint cracked, everything changed. The way he kissed me was urgent, and hungry, and so freaking hot that it told me the whole truth that I’d been aching to feel. He wanted me desperately and he was finally going to let himself go for it.
As our mouths moved together, I knew that this kiss was different. It was going somewhere and it wouldn’t end with him just tucking me into his side, his breathing still ragged and his cock throbbing against my thigh.
That stupid, invisible barrier he’d built between us was gone. He’d stopped telling himself he had to do the right thing simply because Alex had trusted him with me, his little sister.
The way he was kissing me now? Yeah. That line wasn’t just blurring. It was disintegrating.
He slid his hand to the back of my neck, pulling me closer, and I gasped against his lips, so freaking surprised that he was actually bringing me closer instead of trying to claw back some distance between us.
He deepened the kiss, his other hand finding my waist before his palm ran up my side like he was tracing every curve.
I framed his jaw with both hands, my thumbs brushing slowly against his skin to let him know that it was okay. My lips parted and his tongue stroked into my mouth, exploring me like he loved the way I tasted.
Another soft moan came out of me when he tugged me even closer, finally letting me feel openly and shamelessly how much he wanted me. But then he broke away from my mouth, breathing hard as he looked into my eyes.
“Just remember that you’re in control here,” he murmured.
My fingers slid into his hair, tugging hard enough that I knew it would be sending little stings of pain through his scalp. “I’m not in control, but I don’t really want you to be either. Let’s just lose control together, shall we?”
“Already there.” He huffed out a half-laugh, half-groan. “You’re terrifyingly beautiful right now. It kind makes it hard to know what’s real.”
“I’m real, Trent.” I smiled, a slow, teasing, wicked kind of smile I didn’t think my mouth had ever formed before, but he was my husband, literally. If I couldn’t be exactly who I was with him, then who? “What’s so terrifying about it?”
He brushed his nose against mine. “It’s making it impossible to think straight.”
“Good,” I said, closing my fingers tighter around the strands of that rich red hair to show him I meant it. “I don’t want you hiding behind careful intentions anymore, and if you can’t think straight, you won’t be able to make up excuses.”
Thunder shook the sky, along with the walls of the basement, but I was barely hearing it anymore.
All I heard was our breathing and the blood rushing in my ears.
Pushing back up on my toes, I kissed him again, harder this time, pressing into him to let him know he could have me any way he wanted me.
Actually, I was already his. Legally and in every other way. He just didn’t know that yet and I wouldn’t tell him until I knew he wasn’t going to try to push me away if I said it.
“God, Charlotte,” he breathed against my lips, his tone lighter now as he teased. “You’re going to have to be gentle with me tonight.”
“Okay.” I smiled and leaned back just a fraction, enough to look at him fully. “You don’t have to be careful with me, though.”
His throat worked. A devilish gleam lit his eyes as he nipped at my lower lip. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.” My hand slid down to his jaw. “I’ll try to be as gentle as possible, but I can’t guarantee anything.”
A slow grin pulled at his lips. “Is that a threat?”
“It’s a promise.”
“Should I be scared?”
“Yes,” I said instantly, smug and soft at once. “Very.”
He laughed and kissed me again, more urgently now. In a way that told me he was no longer thinking of me as someone’s sister but as a woman he wanted in his arms, in his life.
His hands found the hem of the T-shirt he’d only just helped me into. He pulled back to look at me and the expression on his face almost unraveled me. His brow was drawn, but not with worry, with intensity, like he was on a mission.
“Do it.” I cupped his jaw, my thumb brushing over the stubble that had grown in during the last few chaotic days. His eyes fluttered shut at the contact, his exhale soft and shaky.
“Look at me,” I whispered.
His eyes opened immediately and the heat there, the tenderness and the want, hit me like a wave. “This is all I ever wanted from you. To let go. To be with me.”
“I’m sorry I kept you waiting.” A spark lit behind his eyes and he tightened his grip on my shirt. He pulled it over my head and dropped it on the floor. “You’re not allowed to judge me by my performance today, by the way.”
I reached for the shirt he’d changed into, quickly lifting it and letting my gaze drop to his insanely chiseled abs as I tossed it down next to mine. “I’m totally judging you. Every second. It’s not my fault you’ve been going without.”
Soft laughter rumbled out of him, but finally, he let his gaze drop too. I’d taken off my wet bra earlier, which meant my torso was completely bare in front of him, and even though he’d seen me naked last night too, he let himself really look today in a way he hadn’t then.
“God, you’re gorgeous,” he groaned, bringing one hand to my jaw and his mouth to my lips. “So much better than I ever imagined. Not that I’ve imagined it, obviously.”
I slid my hands up and down the ropes of strong muscle in his back. “You haven’t? I have.”
The tops of his cheeks flushed and I felt another shiver shoot through him. “Really?”
“Really,” I admitted, holding his eyes as I let my fingertips trail into the waistband of his sweats. “Then again, I never thought you were breakable.”
His jaw tensed beneath my palm. “I’ve never thought that about you either.”
“Then why have you been acting like you’ll crack me open just by touching me?”
His breath left him in a harsh, almost pained huff. “You have no idea what you do to me.”
“So tell me. Or better yet, show me.”
He laughed, the sound low and disbelieving, like I’d just knocked the wind out of him in the best possible way. “Fuck, you really are trouble, Charlotte Shepard.”
I trembled a little at hearing my new name on his lips. “Mm-hmm, but you’re stuck with me now, husband.”
His answering growl was soft and playful, but so real that it sent a shudder down my spine.
He kissed me again, completely wild and unrestrained.
The world outside, the storm, the danger, and the uncertainty all faded into nothing.
All that existed was him, the warmth of his chest, the steady strength of his arms, and the way he finally let me all the way in.
I kissed him back with everything I had.
When he broke the kiss, it was only for a few seconds to open the couch that turned out to be a soft bed. All the bedding for it was still on the shelf, but neither of us had the patience to get it right now.
He pushed me down on it, not gently, but not quite as rough as the look in his eyes suggested he was feeling right now either. As I scooted back, he stayed where he was. His hands dropped to his sweats and his eyes burned into mine.
“I lied,” he said as he pushed the sweats down, revealing an erection that confirmed what I’d thought.
He really was big everywhere, neatly trimmed with his cock curving hard and proud toward his belly button, a drop of wetness glistening on his tip.
“I have imagined it. I’ve thought about being inside you in every position known to man and a few people haven’t even come up with yet. ”
All the oxygen got trapped in my lungs. My heart pounded so hard, it hurt as I watched him wrap his long fingers around his shaft.
“This is what you do to me. You’ve got me jerking off in the shower at all hours like I’m fifteen again.
Getting hard at breakfast. Shooting tequila just so I’d be too shit-faced to be tempted when I got back to our hotel room. ”
“That’s why you were drinking that night?” Heat bloomed all the way through me. “Seriously?”
He let out a bark of harsh laughter. “We were going to be sharing a bed for the first time, Charlotte.”
He started stroking himself lazily, his hand sliding up and down the long length of his cock as he tugged his lower lip into his mouth. Just the sight of him like that, his chin held high and his muscles rippling while he had his cock in his fist was enough to make me moan.
“Does that answer your questions?” he rasped out, smoothing some of the wetness over his tip. “Or was there something else you wanted to know?”
I shook my head back and forth slowly and Trent smirked, letting go of himself to stride over to the nearest shelf. My heart was pulsing in my throat, but as I watched, he grabbed a sheet, a blanket, and a box of condoms.
My mouth dried up when he dropped it all on the foot of the sofa bed, spreading first the sheet and then the blanket over me before he reaching for the box again.
I couldn’t look away as he tore off the plastic, then slid one of the foil packages out, bit it open, and rolled the condom slowly over his length.
Heart kicking against my ribs, my gaze followed the movements of his fingers all the way from root to tip. I was so wet, I was pretty sure I was leaving a damp spot on his sweats. My clit pulsed like an avalanche transceiver.
Trent bent over when he was done, hooking his fingers into the waistband of my sweats and tugging them down in one smooth motion, bringing my panties with them. For a second, he just looked me up and down, drinking in every inch of my body before he was on top of me.
“I was being serious before about not wanting to hurt you,” he murmured between searing kisses. “It’s not about being immodest or making excuses. It’s a purely physiological concern. If I could wait, I’d have made sure that you were a little more ready, but—”
“Trust me, I am,” I whispered, spreading my legs to let him settle between them before I wrapped my ankles around his hips. “You won’t hurt me, but if you do, I’ll tell you.”
His features were tight as the broad tip of his dick nudged at my entrance. He held himself up on his elbows, alternating between kissing me and looking into my eyes as he slowly worked his way inside.
A few times, I nearly had to ask him to slow down. He really was big, but every time it happened, I exhaled and forced myself to relax no matter how crazy my heart was beating. It worked. When he finally bottomed out, he inhaled a shuddering breath and looked into my eyes.
“Charlotte,” he breathed against my mouth, and the way he said my name was so soft, reverent, and undone that it made my chest warm on the inside.
“I’m right here,” I whispered, sliding my fingers into his hair. “I’m right here, Trent.”
“I know.”
He finally started moving then, his thrusts deep and powerful even though I could tell that this still wasn’t him being rough. Sparks flew through me at the drag of his cock against every sensitive part of my body, my muscles tensing as my breathing got choppy.
We didn’t rush. We didn’t need to. The storm outside was loud and uncontained, but between us, everything was slow and deliberate, a building of heat, emotion, and connection that neither of us pulled away from.
Trent’s stomach dipped, his eyebrows drawn tightly together as he slammed his eyes shut. Just knowing he was that close was the last push I needed and I didn’t hold back, too desperate to finally get to feel his release and knowing he wouldn’t let it happen until I had.
The orgasm started someplace deeper than I’d ever experienced before, slowly rolling out from there in exquisite waves of euphoria so intense that it practically made me black out. I clawed at his shoulders, my nails digging into his skin as I bucked underneath him.
“Fuck,” he roared against my hair, his head buried in the crook my neck when he finally lost it, his hips slamming into me in an absolutely wild burst of motion.
There was nothing even remotely controlled about it and it sent cascading aftershocks through me. When he finally relaxed above me, I smiled against his temple. “That’s it, baby. More of that. Please.”
He groaned on a low, husky laugh. “You’re going to kill me.”
“Maybe, but what a way to go.” I held him as he laughed.
We ended up curled on the couch, breathless and tangled together, the storm shaking the basement like it wanted us to notice it, but we didn’t.
I lay against his chest with his arm around me, his heart beat solid under my cheek. Thunder cracked like it was somehow inside the house and Trent pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I’ve never felt better or safer.”
His hand tightened on my hip, subtle but sure. “Good. I want you to feel like that with me.”
“I do,” I said, and it was true in a way that felt bone deep.
With Trent beside me, no more hesitation and no more distance between us, holding me like he’d never let go, I felt invincible. Untouchable. Like not even nature itself would ever be able to tear us apart.