Chapter 17 #2
The woman is pure perfection.
She watches me stroke myself, her breath hitching as I give a rough grunt. The sound seems to ripple through the night air, her nipples hardening.
A feast for my eyes, she stands tall and palms her own breasts, fingers kneading while keeping her eyes locked on mine.
The tease is deliberate, calculated to unravel me. Just like every second she's spent here for three damn weekends.
"Show me," I growl, my voice thick. "Show me how much you want this."
Her eyes drop to my cock, then slowly, she moves her fingertips to slip between her own legs, a gasp escaping her as she touches herself.
I watch, transfixed, my hand moving faster on my cock.
Every flick of her wrist, every soft moan feeds the fire between us. She’s giving me everything.
I groan and fight the heat burning in my groin. "Come here."
She comes down on top of me, straddling my hips, and I lift my hands to cup her breasts. She arches into my touch, and I take one nipple into my mouth, sucking hard while she gasps above me.
"Chase." Her fingers thread through my hair, holding me to her. "God, yes."
I lavish attention on both breasts, alternating between gentle licks and sharp bites that make her cry out. Her hips rock against me, and my cock is trapped between us, hard and aching.
"I need you, Piper," I growl against her skin.
"Then take me." She rises up on her knees, positioning herself over me. "But Chase? I don't want to use a condom this time. I want to feel all of you."
The words nearly undo me. We've used condoms every time. I've always been careful and responsible, but the thought of being inside her with nothing between us…
"Are you sure?" My hands still over her hips.
"Mom had me on birth control since I was fifteen." She lowers herself slowly, and the head of my cock pushes inside her. "And I trust you. Oh, God, I trust you, Chase."
I trust you.
Those three words mean more than she could possibly know.
I grip her hips and guide her down, inch by excruciating inch, until I'm fully seated inside her. The bare-skinned sensation is overwhelming—the heat, the wetness, the way she fits around me like she was made for this.
Made for me.
"Piper." Her name comes out broken, desperate and needy. "Baby, you feel so fucking good."
"I know." She rocks her hips, and we both groan. "I know."
She starts to move, rising and falling in a rhythm that steals my breath. I watch her face, the way pleasure transforms her features, and something shifts inside me.
This isn't just sex.
This is everything.
I sit up, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her close. Our foreheads press together, our breath mingling, and she slows her movements until we're barely moving at all.
For one beautiful moment under the stars, we're just connected. Just together. Together in the most intimate way possible.
"Look at me," I whisper, gripping her face with two hands.
Her eyes meet mine, and the world narrows to this moment. To her. To us.
I start to move again, slow and deep, and she matches me. Our hands link together, fingers intertwining, and I've never felt anything like this. This intimacy. This connection.
This love.
"Chase. Don't stop."
"Never." I kiss her chest, her neck, her mouth. "I'll never stop."
I love you. I love you. I love you.
The words pound through me with every thrust, every breath, every beat of my heart. I want to shout them to the stars, carve them into the mountain, make sure the whole world knows.
But I can't.
Because she's going to leave. Because I'm just a phase. Because I'm not enough to make her stay.
So I pour it all into the way I hold her, the way I move inside her, the way I kiss her like she's the only thing keeping me alive.
"I'm close," she gasps. "Chase, I'm—"
"Me too, baby." I thrust deeper, harder, chasing the release that's building at the base of my spine. "Come with me. Please."
She shatters first, her inner walls clenching around me, and the sensation drags me over the edge. I explode inside her, filling her with everything I have, and for one perfect moment we're completely, utterly one.
No barriers. No walls. No distance.
Just us.
I collapse back onto the blanket, taking her with me, and she sprawls across my chest while we both struggle to breathe. The stars wheel overhead, endless and eternal, and I hold her like she might disappear if I let go.
"That was..." She trails off, pressing a kiss to my collarbone.
"Yeah."
We lie there in silence, the fire crackling beside us, and I feel her body gradually relax into sleep. Her breathing evens out, and her weight settles more fully against me.
I reach for the second blanket and pull it over us both, tucking it around her shoulders.
I stare up at the stars and try to memorize this feeling. The rightness of having her here, under the Stone River Mountain sky, in my world.
I love you, I think, pressing a kiss to her hair. I love you, and I don't know how to let you go.
But I will.
Because that's what I do. I let people go when they need to leave. I don't ask them to stay when they have bigger, better lives waiting for them.
I learned that lesson with my mom. With Lily. With everyone who's ever mattered.
Piper shifts in her sleep, her hand curling over my heart, and I close my eyes against the sting of tears.
Just be yourself, Jamie said. That's all you can do.
So I'll be myself. I'll give her these weekends, these stolen moments, these pieces of my heart that she's already claimed.
And when she leaves tomorrow, I'll let her go with a smile.
Because loving someone means wanting what's best for them.