Chapter 5
Ishouldn’t do this. We shouldn’t do this.
I’m still technically in a relationship—at least for a few more hours—and Tessa is best friends with my sister. A failed fling could make things very awkward for both of us moving forward.
But just thirty seconds into this kiss, I already know Tessa isn’t “fling” material. There’s nothing casual about the way I feel when she straddles me, moaning her approval as I grip her ass in both hands. Nothing casual about this kiss that sets every cell in my body on fire.
Speaking of fire…
“Can I take you inside?” I say, breath coming fast as I kiss my way down her neck. “I’d like to touch you without worrying about campfire smoke in our eyes.”
“You can take me anywhere you want to take me,” Tessa says, her words banishing the last of my hesitation.
She starts to shift backward on my lap, but I grip her tighter, holding her in place as I stand and start for the tent, her in my arms.
Her eyes widen as her hands loop around my neck. “Impressive display, Mr. McGuire. I’m not a dainty girl.”
“No, you’re a sexy as hell woman, and I can’t wait to have my mouth all over you.”
She bites her lip, her eyes glittering. “Yes, please.”
I set her down by the tent, pulling aside the flap for her to enter first. Once she’s inside, I join her, zipping the opening shut so we’re not surprised by anything else that might want to blow or crawl in to join us.
When I turn back to her, she’s already stripped off her boots and flannel and is reaching for the bottom of her tank top.
“Should we finish that tick check?” she asks, heat in her gaze that makes my already throbbing cock twitch behind my fly.
“Absolutely.” I chuck my own boots and reach for my shirt, cursing beneath my breath as her breasts bob free of her top. They’re each an overflowing handful, topped by pale peach nipples that I need my mouth on. Now.
Right fucking now.
I’m across the tent in seconds, my hand diving into her hair and fisting there as I pull her close. I crush my lips to hers, kissing her with all the hunger she’s summoned to the surface as I cup her breast in my other hand, teasing her pretty nipple until it’s hard beneath my fingers.
“Jesus, Wes,” she pants when we finally come up for air.
“Too much?” I ask, a flicker of uncertainty tightening my ribs. She hasn’t given any sign that she isn’t enjoying this as much as I am. But Darcy didn’t either, not until we’d been dating for a few months and she confessed she found me too “aggressive” in bed, leaving me feeling terrible for not sensing her discomfort earlier.
Tessa shakes her head, her blue eyes wide. “No. Not even close. You just… You make me feel things. Things I haven’t felt in a long time.”
“Good things?” I mold her breasts with my hands, loving the heavy weight of them. Loving the way her gaze fills with hunger as I tease her nipples between my fingers even more…
“So good.” She braces her hands on my chest as I lay back, pulling her on top of me. Her breath hitches, a moan wrenching from low in her throat as I bring my mouth to her flushed skin, showing her nipples how happy I am to meet them. “We probably shouldn’t do this, but damn…I don’t want to stop. Please, don’t stop.”
“Never,” I say, continuing to attend to her gorgeous breasts as I reach between us, popping the button on her hiking pants. My hand dives down the back of the now gaping fabric, discovering silky panties and the delectable curve of her ass.
“God, Wes, you make me so wet,” she murmurs.
“Yeah?” I reach farther down and around until my fingers skim over the soaked cotton panel of her panties. I drag the fabric aside, groaning as I explore every perfect slick fold between her legs.
“Clothes,” she pants, squirming on top of me. “We need fewer of them.”
“Right now,” I agree, wrapping an arm tight around her waist as I flip us over, reversing our position on the sleeping bag.
A moment later, I’ve ripped her pants, panties, and socks down her legs and am kneeling between her thighs, admiring a tantalizing glimpse of her pussy.
“Spread your legs,” I tell her as I work open my pants and pull down the zipper on my fly. “I want to see you.”
“I like your bossy side,” she says as she obeys, her gaze devouring me as I drag my pants and boxer briefs down and toss them to the side of the tent. Her lips part on a rush of breath. “I like that even better.”
“My cock?” I grip my swollen length, stroking myself up and down.
She nods loosely. “Hell, yes. Get over here and do bad things to me.” She reaches for me and I go into her arms without a beat of hesitation.
It just feels so right, so easy and comfortable and hot as fucking hell. Tessa doesn’t feel like a new lover. Even the way we communicate—the way she asks for me to suck her clit harder when I’m making her come on my mouth, how quickly she says “yes,” when I ask if I can pull her hair while I fuck her from behind—it’s all so simple and…beautiful.
She’s so fucking beautiful, back on top of me now, her breasts bouncing as she rides me to her third orgasm of the night. I drag her lips back to mine and lift my hips, giving her even more to grind against as she takes me every bit as fiercely as I’m taking her.
“Oh, Wes. Oh, God, Wes, I’m almost there,” she says. “So close, I’m so close.”
“Then come for me, baby,” I say. “Come all over my cock.” Her spine arches and ridiculously sexy coming sounds coo and moan and whimper from her throat. “Good girl,” I pant as I pump harder into the slick, clutching silk of her pussy. “Good girl, fuck you feel so good. So good, Tessa.”
I come so hard the pleasure is almost painful. I grimace into her hair as my cock jerks inside her and my release moves through me in fierce, wrenching waves. It feels so good, so fucking good, I should have known there was something different about this aside from the fact that Tessa is absolutely delicious in bed.
As I finally come back into my body, I register the wetness all over my thighs, and tense beneath her, cursing softly.
“What’s wrong?” She props up on one arm, staring down at me in the thick shadows of the tent.
I run what I hope is a comforting hand down her back to rest on the curve of her ass. “Nothing. I just… We didn’t use a condom.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” She relaxes with an easy sigh. “Birth control isn’t an issue and I was tested after my last relationship. I found out Nate was cheating after we broke up, so I wanted to be sure I was okay. And I am.”
I hug her closer. “Nate is a fucking idiot and the rest is…good. I’m safe, too. I’ve only been with one person in the past year and we were both tested.”
She brushes my hair from my forehead. “Good to know.”
A hint of guilt worms through my belly again, but I push it away. I should come clean with Tessa about Darcy and…I will. But not now. Not when she’s kissing her way down my chest and this night has been so perfect.
Nearly an hour later, after Tessa’s sucked my cock back to life and I’ve fucked her slow and deep, holding her gaze as I move inside her, we lay side by side watching the stars come out through the netting at the top of the tent.
We talk about everything and nothing—our families, our careers, growing up in Bad Dog, and the way Nate ghosted her like an emotionally stunted chump.
The mention of her ex again prompts thoughts of my soon-to-be ex, but I don’t mention Darcy until the next morning over coffee.
I do my best to deliver the news with a light touch, assuring her the first thing I’m going to do when I get to town is end things with Darcy.
“Oh my God.” Tessa sits down hard on the log beside the dead fire, shaking her head numbly back and forth. “I can’t believe this. I’m the other woman. You made me the other woman. I’m a cheater.”
“No, you’re not,” I assure her. “And I’m not either, not really. Honestly, Tessa, I had decided to end things before we ran into each other yesterday. Darcy and I aren’t good together. Not anymore. We never were, honestly, not like you and me. We never had a night like last night.”
She shakes her head harder, her eyes squeezing closed. “No. I don’t want to hear about your girlfriend, Wes. Last night was really special to me. I thought…” She opens her eyes with a sigh. “Never mind what I thought, but I—”
“It was special to me, too,” I say, crouching down in front of her and taking her hands in mine, grateful when she allows it. “Please, Tessa,” I say, waiting until her troubled gaze meets mine. “I’m going to end things this morning. I swear to you. And then, can we talk more about this? About what comes next, for us? Please? I don’t want this to be a one-night thing.”
Her gaze softens and there’s a hint of hope in her voice when she says, “We could meet for second breakfast at the diner by the lake. Great pancakes and a decent amount of privacy if you eat at one of the outdoor tables.”
“That sounds perfect,” I say, my heart lifting. “I’ll text you as soon as I’m free.”
We pack up camp and hike out to our cars.
The vibe between us is more guarded than it was last night—at least, on Tessa’s part—but still warm and friendly and so damned good. A wild part of me starts to think maybe this is it, the relationship I’ve been hoping for since being single started feeling stupid a few years ago.
And then I get to Darcy’s place and everything goes to shit.
By the time I text Tessa that evening to try to explain, she’s blocked my number.
Over the next several months, I try—and fail—to reconnect with the woman I can’t get out of my head, but she turns avoiding me into an art form.
I start to despair, to think there’s no hope…until one night in April, a year and a half after that night in the woods, when Fate conspires to give me one last shot at the one who got away.