22. Bridget
22
brIDGET
“ T his is quite the set-up you’ve got,” I teased as Chase spread a quilt over the air mattress he had inflated in the bed of the truck.
We waited until the portable grill was cool before stowing it in the back of the truck with the coolers. That’s when Chase produced an armful of blankets and pillows.
“Did you think I was gonna make you sleep on the sand?”
I shrugged. “Wouldn’t put it past you.”
“If I slept on the ground, I’d throw my back out, and I wouldn’t be able to work for a week,” he teased before his voice turned serious. “Listen, if you don’t feel comfortable sleeping outside, I can make up the back seat, and you can sleep in there with the doors locked.”
I slid my hand into his. “I’m safe with you.” It was a loaded statement, and he knew it.
I wasn’t just talking about his ability to protect me physically. It was an admission that I knew I could be vulnerable around him. That I didn’t have to have my walls up. I didn’t have to be strong .
“Poor Luna is gonna hate us,” I said as I slipped my flip flops off and climbed into the bed of the truck.
“Nah.” Chase gave me a lazy grin as he pulled back the blankets. “She’s having the time of her life with Will and Kristin’s kids. They love dog-sitting.”
The sun had set, bringing in cool air and bright stars. The sky and ocean were black. Faint dots of light from fishing vessels bobbed on the horizon. A few hundred feet down the beach, another cluster of campers had lanterns glowing.
A gust of wind from the ocean flooded my skin with goosebumps. “Probably one of the last nights you would have been able to sleep under the stars without getting hypothermia,” I said as I wiggled under the flannel sheets he had fitted to the air mattress.
I wasn’t crazy about the idea of sleeping in my clothes, but I didn’t know if he had packed something for me to sleep in.
Chase lounged on the mountain of pillows he had propped up against the back of the truck bed. There were pillows from his bed, from the cottage, and from the couch.
Despite my hatred of camping, this had been the most romantic night of my life. Chase had kidnapped me, driven me onto a boat, taken me to an island, made me dinner, and had us sleeping under an endless sky of stars.
In my previous life, I had assumed that if Chase and I ever did get together, I’d be stuck with the minimum. We knew each other better than we knew ourselves—he wouldn’t need to court me.
But boy was I wrong. Chase was pulling out all the stops.
“What’s going through your head?” he asked.
I decided to take a chance and strip down to my bra and panties. It was the same coverage as a swimsuit, right?
Chase shed his shorts and safely tucked our clothes beside the air mattress .
“Oh, fuck—” I hissed as the cold night air whipped around my skin. “That was a bad idea!”
Chase laughed. “Yeah, you don’t feel it as much when you’re three sheets to the wind.” He opened his arms, beckoning me to join him under the blankets. “Come here, darlin’.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I wiggled further under the sheets and wrapped myself around him, soaking in his body heat.
“Geez!” he howled. “You’re like a fucking ice cube!”
“You asked for it!”
“And I’m regretting it!” He laughed, wrapping his arms around my shivering body. “You already took my breath away, might as well take my body heat, too.”
I tossed my head back as a laugh ripped free. “That was such a line, Brannan.”
“Yeah, it was,” he chuckled as he brushed my lips with his. “But I meant it.”
His cock thickened between us. Nerves and hormones battled for the front line in my brain.
I wanted him.
Wanted us.
But it was Chase. My best friend. What if things didn’t work out? I couldn’t bear the thought of losing him for good.
What if the sex wasn’t good?
He blew my mind the other night, but what if when we finally went all the way, it wasn’t as good for him as it was for me?
Chase slid his hand down my back to my ass, lingering just long enough to give my cheek a squeeze. He continued his path, lower and lower until he was bringing my knee up, hooking my leg around his hip. He ground his hard erection into my core.
“Are we really doing this?” I whispered. “Giving us a shot?”
“You ready to take the leap with me?” His lips brushed mine. “Are you ready to let me love you? ”
My breasts were flattened against the unforgiving wall of his chest. I kissed him, sliding my tongue against his, desperate for something to drive away the fear.
Fear of not being good enough for him.
Fear of not being loveable.
Fear of failure.
Fear of losing the most important person in my life.
Chase eased off the kiss, cupping my cheeks in his wide hands. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” It was as simple as that.
I felt the hooks of my bra release as we kissed again. Trepidation choked me, and I buried my face in the crook of his neck as he slid my panties off.
There was no foreplay needed. The last decade of our lives had been foreplay enough.
Chase shucked off his boxers, pulling the blankets over us as he straddled my waist. The blunt head of his cock nudged against my slick pussy. Moonlight danced around us, illuminating his sharp lines of muscle in bright lines and harsh shadows.
That voice drifted back into my head again.
The voice that reminded me that I was trash. Unworthy. Undesirable.
Damaged .
“Come back to me,” Chase soothed into my ear. “Right here. Look at me, darlin’.”
Rather than bracing his hands on either side of me, Chase had his arms around the back of my shoulders and my waist. He pulled me off the mattress as his dick notched at the entrance of my pussy.
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was his angel wing tattoo shrouding me, surrounding me like a shield.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered. “Always will. ”
Tears leaked from my eyes. Embarrassed, I lifted my hand to wipe my cheeks, but he was already there, kissing the tears away.
“I need to know something.”
Was he fucking kidding me? “Now?”
“Yeah, now,” he said as he teased my slit, his cock bumping against my clit.
My mouth gaped open. Only Chase would decide that now was the right time for a quick chat.
“You with me, darlin’?” he asked. “I need you to meet me in the middle. That’s what this is gonna be—you and me. Equal ground.”
I shook my head and felt him tense. “This isn’t equal ground.” I gripped the back of his thighs and nudged him closer. “This is holy ground.”
We met in a mingling of souls, his cock sliding into my pussy without a modicum of resistance. He let out a shuddering breath as my warmth wrapped around his shaft.
Instead of jackhammering into me, Chase held himself deep inside. “Every part of you was made for me.” He tilted his hips, stroking a hidden spot deep inside me that burst with sparks of pleasure. I let a quiet groan escape as he ground his pelvis against my clit. “So fucking beautiful, darlin’.”
“I love you, Chase,” I whispered. “Now, please—for the love of God—fuck me before I die.”
The second thrust, thick and bare, stole my breath. The third and fourth thrusts erased every thought in my mind.
Chase took my hands in his, raising them over my head. My nipples hardened in the night air. He dipped his head, taking one in his mouth.
I stifled a cry of ecstasy. Every millimeter of my body felt like it was charged. Every brush of his skin against mine had those charges exploding .
Heat and pressure boiled in my core. I dug my fingers into his ass, driving him inside of me harder, faster.
“Darlin’, I ain’t gonna last long,” he said through pained pauses. “You feel so fucking good, Bee.”
“I’m on birth control,” I whispered, arching my back as he sat on his haunches and drove into me. “Please,” I begged. “Come inside of me.”
“Bridg—”
“Shut up and fuck me. You’re not taking advantage of me. I want this just as much as you do.”
His wide grin flashed in the darkness. “Missed your mouth, darlin’.”
I let out a quiet laugh. “Forever is a long time. You sure you want to put up with it?”
“Hell yeah.” He pistoned into me, bottoming out as he massaged my tits and tweaked my nipples.
“Chase—” I whispered in utter reverence as I felt my walls fluttering around his cock.
“I feel you, darlin’.” He dipped his head and peppered my shoulder with feather-light kisses. “I want you to come with me.”
“I… I’ve never?—”
“You will. Let yourself go.”
His powerful thrusts slowed and stroked every inch of my pussy. “You’re so fuckin’ tight,” he choked out. “Come for me. I’ve been dreaming about this moment. Let me see it.”
I cried out, muffling the sound as I pressed my mouth against his shoulder. Chase used one hand to cradle the back of my head and the other to wrap around my waist. He held my body against his as my pussy clamped around his cock, and his release pulsed into me.
He held me in his arms, whispering sweet nothings as we came down from the high .
With frantic hands, he was brushing my hair out of my face, checking me over, and raining kisses across every inch of my skin.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered as tremors shook my body. I could feel his dick softening inside of me, but he didn’t pull out. Didn’t sever the connection. “You’re safe with me, darlin’.” He pressed a kiss to the peak of my shoulder. “I love you.”
“Don’t ever doubt it,” I echoed.
Satisfied that I wasn’t going to spontaneously combust, he drew me into a leisurely kiss. “You okay?”
I nodded, not wanting to shatter the blissful clouds of orgasm hormones just yet.
He left sloppy kisses down my jawline. “I’ll last longer next time. Pull out all the stops.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Is Chase Brannan self-conscious?”
He smirked. “Ass.”
“Takes one to know one.”
“Touché.” He chuckled before his voice turned serious. “I’ve thought about this moment for a long time. We have our whole lives ahead of us to get creative and try whatever kinky shit you want to.” Chase pecked my lips, brushing his thumb along my cheek. “But this was just about us.”
“The way we were always supposed to be.”
He smiled against my mouth. “I like that.”
“Did you ever think we’d make it here?”
Chase rolled onto his side and pulled me into his arms. His release trickled down my thigh, but I didn’t care. I’d figure out some way to clean up later.
“A few years ago, it felt like everything was falling apart,” he said quietly. “Heather died. Mel was pining over Steve, and Steve was a fucking wreck. Maddie was working herself to death. Kristin was barely scraping by with the kids. Hannah Jane was so damn uptight, I thought she was going to blow a gasket.” He sighed and looked at the stars glimmering above us. “And you started dating Kingsley.”
“And look where we are now.”
“Yeah.” He grinned as our noses bumped. “Look at us.”
“You know what we should do now?”
“Take a picture, send it to the poker club, and then turn our phones off?”
I laughed. “They would murder us.”
Chase smirked. “What should we do?”
I couldn’t help the mischievous tone dancing through my words. “We should go skinny-dipping!” I whispered.
He let out a rumble of laughter. “Darlin’, it’s sixty-two degrees out. I don’t know if my dick can recover from shriveling up in that water.”
“Mhmm,” I hummed. “That would be a tragedy, especially because you have yet to experience how good I am with my mouth.”
Chase groaned. “You’re killing me, woman. Do I want to know how you, uh, gained those skills?”
“Probably not,” I snickered. “But if you want references and raving reviews, just ask the boys. I’ve shared quite a few tips with the girls over the years.”
Chase grimaced. “You’re something else, Bee.” He brushed the pad of his thumb over my lips. “I’ve missed you.”
“You’ve still seen me…”
He shook his head. “I’ve missed this side of you. The irreverent, slightly crazy, wild child that I fell for a long time ago.”
“Well,” I whispered against his thumb before sucking it into my mouth.
Chase closed his eyes and inhaled a sharp breath as I swirled my tongue around his finger, offering a preview of how I would show my thanks to him when we got back home .
I released his thumb with a pop and grinned. “Your girl is gonna go skinny-dipping.” I pecked his cheek. “And for the record, the water is still, like, seventy-eight degrees. So, you’re just chicken.”
I pushed the blankets back, frigid air nipping at my flushed skin.
“You’re serious?” he asked.
I looked over my shoulder, trying not to let my teeth chatter. “Dead fuckin’ serious, baby.” I swung one bare leg over the tailgate, then the other. I lingered there for a moment, giving him a nice view of my ass. “You coming?”
I heard his feet hit the sand as I raced across the beach. Ghost crabs skittered across the sand, dodging my steps. I shrieked as one scurried too close for comfort.
Strong arms wrapped around my ribs and, for the first time, I didn’t freak out.
“This is illegal, you know,” he said as we ran into the water.
“So is having sex on the beach,” I countered, turning so I could drape my arms around his neck. Our chests pressed together as we staved off the autumn chill. “You gonna arrest me, Detective Brannan?” I teased. “Put me in handcuffs?”
There was an unmistakable twinkle in his eye.
“So, you’ve thought about it before?”
Chase grabbed my ass as a wave pulled us further into the water. I wrapped my legs around him and felt his dick nudging against my pussy again. “I told you I have. Remember?”
I rested my head on his shoulder, clinging to him. “The day you helped me burn my wedding dress.”
“Handcuffs are just the beginning of what I want to do with your perfect little body,” he rasped. “But we’re taking this slow. Doing it right. ”
We bobbed up and down in the waves, washing away the sweat and stickiness of sex with saltwater.
“You still haven’t told me about your tattoo,” I said as we dried off and snuggled under the covers.
“Hmm?”
“What does it mean?” I asked as I trailed my finger along one of the feathers. The detail of each vein and quill was incredible. He must have sat in the chair for hours. I had always wanted a tattoo, but couldn’t decide on what to get.
“You promise not to laugh?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’ve seen me naked. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
“Bee, I’m serious.”
“Fine, fine. I won’t laugh.”
He let out a breath. “The summer of fifth grade, we went to Vacation Bible School at the Baptist church.”
“I remember that,” I said as I cuddled into his side and closed my eyes. “You were so mad that they put you and Steve in different classes.”
He hummed in acknowledgment against the crown of my head. “You and I weren’t really friends yet, but we got put in the same class.”
“If I remember correctly, that was when we became friends.”
“Yeah.” He kissed my forehead. “And they had us learn this Bible verse about taking shelter in the shadow of His wing.”
I giggled. “And I was mad because Jason was one of the older kids volunteering, and he called me Bumble Bee in front of everybody.”
“And they teased you and said bumblebees had weak girl wings .”
“Kids are such assholes,” I giggled.
“They really are. ”
I looked up at him. “But you put your arm around my shoulders and said that if anyone wanted to pick on me, they’d have to get through you.”
“I was a scrawny-ass kid, Bee,” he chuckled as he closed his eyes. “But after that day, I never stopped wanting to protect you.” Chase draped his arm around me, hiding me under his wing like a guardian angel.
“I love you,” I said, pecking his lips.
“Get some sleep, darlin’,” he yawned. “I’ve got you.”