Chapter 21
This is it. I don’t need to go to the desert and hunt for gold. The only treasure I need is right here.
The taste of her, her smell, the sounds she makes as I pull her nipple into my mouth, sucking deep…this is all I’ve wanted, what I’ve been craving like an addict since the last time she was under me.
But the last time we were in a tiny tent, in a sleeping bag only lightly cushioned from the hard ground underneath.
Now, I have her in a giant soft bed, and I mean to make the most of it.
“Roll over,” I say, already gripping her hips and flipping her beneath me.
“Yes,” she moans, moving to shift onto her knees.
I stop her with a palm at the small of her back. “No. Stay like this.”
“I’ve never done it from behind like this before,” she says, glancing at me over her shoulder.
I smile as I dig my palm in gentle circles at the base of her spine, summoning a happy sound from low in her throat. “We can do that in a little while if you want, but first, I’m going to give you a massage.”
Her brow furrows. “That’s sweet, but…I don’t think I want a massage.”
“You’ll want this one,” I assure her.
“No, I want your cock,” she says. “It’s been a long time, Wes. Your cock was my last cock. That’s almost two years without sex. That’s way too long.”
“Tell me about it. Fucking torture,” I agree, my hands moving down to knead into the perfect swells of her ass.
Her lips part. “You too?”
“Me, too,” I confirm, thumbs caressing the base of her bottom, right above her sit bones, fighting a grin as her lids flutter and linger at half-mast.
“Wow, that’s…”
“Turning you on?” I ask, fingers probing lower, but still deliberately avoiding the obvious places. I don’t intend to touch her pussy until I’m gliding inside her.
“I was going to say amazing. And special. About the ‘not having sex with anyone else’ part, but y-yes.” She pulls in a deeper breath, letting it out with a soft sigh. “But the rubbing is good, too. I feel it…deep inside. Not just where you’re touching.”
“The clitoris isn’t just the part that shows on the outside. It has roots that stretch down around your pussy and…deep inside.”
“Are you mansplaining my clitoris to me?” she asks, making me laugh.
“Maybe a little bit. Sorry.”
She grins, biting her lip as I knee her thighs farther apart, giving me better access to every soft inch of skin between her legs. “It’s okay. I actually didn’t know that. But I could feel it when you were rubbing me before. You could rub me there again…if you want.”
“I will,” I promise, digging my thumbs into her hip flexors, summoning a deeper, slightly pained moan from her this time. “Just trying to spread the love around.”
“Damn, that hurts, but I like it. I had no idea I was so tight right there.” Her eyes close as she breathes through the release. As her muscles relax, letting me in, I rock my thumbs a little deeper. “How did you learn so much about women’s bodies, Mr. McGuire?”
“I’m a research nerd about all my favorite subjects, Ms. Martin. And I had an older lover in college. One of my professors, actually.”
Tessa’s eyes open. “Really?”
“Really.”
“How much older?”
I sigh, my lips curving as I confess, “Fifteen years.”
Tessa’s brows shoot up. “Fifteen? Are you sure you weren’t molested?”
I snort. “No. Not at all. She was thirty-five. I was twenty. It was fine. Great actually. She was a good person. Taught me a lot of valuable things.” I skim my palm up her back until I reach the nape of her neck. Curling my fingers around the slender column, I add in a huskier voice, “Like the value of foreplay.”
Tessa’s breath rushes out. “Yes, please. I love your fist in my hair. I’ve been thinking about it ever since that first night.”
“When do you think about it?” I ask, slowly threading my fingers into the thick strands, letting my fingers skim along the sensitive skin on her scalp.
She swallows, her lips parting again as her breath comes faster. “When I’m in bed.”
“In bed with your hand between your legs?” I ask, tightening my grip, until I have a solid handful of her silky hair firmly in my grasp. Pulling her head gently back, I lean down to whisper near her ear, “Do you think of me fucking you when you touch yourself, Tessa?”
“Yes,” she says, arching her pretty ass higher in the air. “I think about you fucking me and telling me how perfect my wet pussy feels around your cock.”
“We shouldn’t have fucked without a condom,” I say, so turned on pre-come is beginning to leak from the tip of my cock. “That was irresponsible.”
“I want to be irresponsible again,” she says, her hips squirming against the mattress. “I love feeling you come inside me.”
Muttering a curse beneath my breath, I knee her thighs even farther apart and lengthen myself on top of her. “You’re doing your best to hurry the foreplay along, aren’t you?”
“Foreplay next time” she murmurs, reaching back, dragging her fingers over my hip and down until her fingers brush my erection. Her breath rushes out. “God, Wes. You don’t know how many times I’ve thought about us like this. I promise, I’m ready. Past ready. I need you so much. I need to know you’re mine.”
“For as long as you’ll have me.” I shift lower, until my cock is cradled between her thighs. The feel of her slick pussy on my fevered skin is all it takes to bring me fully on board the “foreplay later” train. “I’m yours,” I promise as I push forward, bliss and gratitude making my breath catch as her body welcomes me in. “And you’re mine,” I rasp, burying myself to the hilt with one long, steady thrust as I pull her hair back again.
She groans and shudders beneath me, the rush of fresh slickness over my cock assuring me she loves the thought of that as much as I do.
And then my mouth is on her neck, kissing and biting as I take her with a barely contained ferocity, the kind that used to upset Darcy. With my ex, I always had to reign myself in, pull back, watch my mouth, and temper my instincts. With Tessa, I’m free to give her everything in me, to show her just how much I want her.
More than I’ve ever wanted a woman before…
“You fucking destroy me,” I murmur into her ear. “After that night in the tent, I couldn’t be with anyone else. I tried, but all I could think about was you and this sweet pussy and your gorgeous ass in my hands and the sounds you made when you come. Are you going to come for me again, baby? Are you going to drench my cock like a good girl?”
She whimpers, a sound that becomes a gasp as I drag my teeth over the delicate skin of her earlobe. “Yes, Wes. God, yes. Pull my hair harder. Fuck me harder. Please. Harder.”
“You never have to say please,” I say, giving her exactly what she’s asked for. “All you have to do is tell me how you want me, baby. All I want to do is please you, beautiful girl. Fuck, yes. God, Tessa.” My thrusts grow wild, erratic as she wiggles her hips back against my thrusts, slickness leaking down her thighs as she moans and curses and calls my name like a prayer.
I’m seconds away from losing control when she arches beneath me, going still for an achingly perfect moment as her inner walls lock and pulse around me.
I come with a groan a beat later, gasping, “Good girl. Fuck, so good, Tessa. I love your pussy, baby. Your body. Your smell. Everything about you.” As I collapse on top of her, my cock jerking, I grip a handful of her perfect bottom, squeezing it as my orgasm continues to rock through me. “And this ass. This perfect fucking ass. I love this ass. I’ve wanted my hands on you like this so many times since we left town. You have no idea.”
“I do,” she says, still breathless. “Same here. I’ve been fantasizing about biting your bicep, right beneath the edge of your sleeve, almost constantly. Preferably while you’re inside me. I’m a terrible friend.”
Grinning, I pull out, kissing away her moan of protest as I roll her over onto her back beneath me. She wraps her legs around my hips, returning the kiss.
“I adore you,” I whisper against her mouth, fighting another smile as I add, “But you’re right, you’re a terrible friend.”
She huffs out a soft laugh and swats my ass.
I grin and double down, “Sorry, but you are. Friends don’t fantasize about biting friends in a sexual way, Tessa. Or a non-sexual way. Biting isn’t a friendly thing to do.”
She glares up at me, but her eyes are glittering with amusement. “Says the man who just bit my neck and my ear and got sassy with my nipples the last time we were together.”
“Sassy in what way?” I cup her breast, teasing my thumb under her perfect peach areola.
“Don’t play dumb,” she whispers, her amusement tinged with desire.
“If you don’t like my teeth on you, just let me know,” I say, capturing her nipple between my fingers and thumb and giving it a light squeeze. “I can stop at any time. Like I said, all I want to do is please you.”
Her lashes flutter. “You know I like it. I love it. And you like it when I return the favor.”
“I do,” I say. “Just thinking about your teeth on me is enough to make me feel a certain kind of way.” I lower my hips, pressing against her slickness, letting her feel how quickly my cock is rallying for round two. “I guess we’ll just have to agree to be more than friends.”
“Yes, please,” she says, wrapping her legs more firmly around me. “Now bring that bicep over here and let me see if it’s still as fun to nibble as it was before.”
And because her wish is my command, I do, and in just a few minutes, I’m inside her again, taking her slower this time. We grind together, languid and deep, kissing and biting and teasing until the last few moments, when all I can do is stare into her eyes.
Those gorgeous blue eyes that show me all her secrets…
In the seconds before she comes again, I see all the way to the heart of her. I see her bravery, her sweetness, her fear, and her pain. I see all the love she has inside, desperate for a home, and the dreams she’s started to think might never come true.
As I lose myself inside her a second time, I silently promise to make them come true. I want to be her home, her refuge from the shit show of the world, the man she can trust never to let her down.
After we catch our breath, I pull back, gazing down at her, searching for the perfect words to tell her that I’m all in without scaring her away. I know it’s too soon to tell her I love her, even though it’s true.
Before I can find any words, let alone the perfect ones, a sharp chuffing sound comes from behind us.
I turn over my shoulder to see Freya standing at the top of the stairs with her eyes narrowed. She’s on her back feet, giving her a clear view of the bed…and my very exposed, very vulnerable parts.
“Should I be worried about my crotch?” I ask, the words ending in a rush of breath as Freya charges the mattress.
My heart leaps into my throat, but before I can even think about moving to protect myself, the avenging ferret scampers past my ass. She stops by the head of the bed, sticking her tiny snout in between us, sniffing Tessa’s cheek.
“Stop,” she says, laughing as Freya’s nose probes into her hair. “I’m fine. I promise.”
Clearly unconvinced, Freya climbs onto Tessa’s chest, crouching between us.
Tessa laughs harder. “No, buddy. No furry friends in the bedroom. We need boundaries.”
“We need a bedroom door,” I say, reaching for my clothes.
“Or her crate,” Tessa says, sitting up and shooing Freya onto the covers beside her.
“On it,” I say, already off the bed and halfway into my jeans. “Don’t go anywhere. You stay naked and in bed, that’s the deal.”
Tessa shakes her head, her dimple popping. “I need water. And so does Freya. We’ll get back in bed later. I promise.” She makes shooing motions at me this time. “Go, fetch things. The sooner we give this hungry, nosy girl her dinner, the sooner we can tuck her into her crate for the night.”
“All right,” I grumble, playing up my annoyance to make Tessa laugh again.
I love her laugh.
I love knowing I don’t have to hide how much I want her even more.
I’m so high on good feelings, I don’t remember to be creeped out by the spooky forest until I’ve already gathered our things from the camper and am almost back to the cottage. I hurry the last three steps to the door, ignoring the “watched” sensation prickling up the back of my spine.
Back inside, the uneasiness fades quickly, but I don’t protest when Tessa insists on putting a bowl of cream on the back porch as a goodwill offering to the fair folk and cryptids.
Afterwards, we feed Freya and snuggle with her on the couch for a bit, while Tessa reads from a book of fairy tales on the coffee table. When the ferret’s eyes slide closed, we tuck her into her crate and head back upstairs.
Sometime around midnight, when we’re finally too tired to go again, Tessa rests her head on my chest. I hug her close, drifting off to sleep with only one thought in my head—This is it.
This is what I didn’t realize I was looking for until I met her.
This is all I’ll ever need.
This is worth fighting for, no matter what happens when we get back home.
I kiss her forehead, chest tightening when she hums happily and snuggles closer to my side.
Maybe I’ll be able to tell her I love her sooner than I thought.