Chapter 13
13
In the end, Harper was grateful for the lift back. She absolutely would have got lost in the woods – again – without any light to guide her way. As they pulled up outside the cabin, she snuggled deeper into the passenger seat, feeling too comfortable in the earthy warmth of Fraser’s truck to want to face the cold. Still, a gentle buzz hummed inside her. It had been a good day. Her first good day in a long time. She may not have written a bestseller yet, but she’d kept her promises to herself, without beating herself up, and she’d even received more than eighty likes on her latest Instagram post – a rain-spotted, windswept selfie on the boat.
“Tired?” he asked as he shut off the engine, leaving them in a thick quiet, broken only by the chirping of birds in the trees.
She nodded, unable to keep from smiling. “It wasn’t a bad day, in the end.”
“See? Belbarrow isn’t all rain and mud after all.”
“No, it isn’t.” Certainly not with him around. He was one great big surprise. She hadn’t prepared for it, for him, but here he was beside her, hands resting on the steering wheel and eyes settled firmly on her… like they belonged there.
She still couldn’t work out if he wanted her the way she wanted him, but now, just sitting in his presence, her atoms buzzed, from the hairs on her arms to her tightly wound core. She would need her vibrator tonight, that was for sure – and she didn’t care if it made her think of him. She was already thinking of him. Constantly.
He rubbed his lower lip with his thumb as though deliberating something. “You know, I, er…”
“Yeah?” she murmured, unwilling to let him trail off and leave the unspoken words hanging in the air between them.
He offered a half-grimace, half-smile. “I enjoy your company, is all.”
“I thought I was a pain in your neck,” she accused, unable to reign in her smugness.
He snorted. “You are. Somehow, I enjoy your company despite that.”
“Hmm.” Her body felt like it was on the edge of something. A precipice, with a rope bound around her waist to keep her from falling. Only, she wanted to fall.
She wanted to feel his skin touch hers again, like it had in the tavern. She wanted to be devoured by his wolfish grin, wanted him to whisper in her ear how much he hated to ache for her. Wanted to feel his breath graze her jaw, her neck, fanning over her like embers ready to catch fire.
She’d forgotten what this sort of desire had felt like. Forgotten she was even capable of it. She often held it at bay, too afraid it might not be reciprocated. She used to leave Kenzie to initiate every moment of intimacy, just in case she read it all wrong and made a fool of herself.
He was staring at her, she realised. Waiting for something more.
When she met his eyes, he let out a long puff of breath and shook his head. “Shite, Harper.”
“What?” she asked, not confident enough to believe she might already know.
“You are… not what I was expecting.”
“No?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he leaned forwards, clicking loose both his seatbelt and then hers. “Are you teasing me on purpose?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she lied.
His nose brushed hers, and the jagged breath that left her betrayed her waning resolve. It was easier to let it show in the darkness of the truck, with shadows all around. Part of her hoped he wouldn’t see her blush. The other part hoped he would, so that she wouldn’t have to say it, either.
So that they could just let it happen, whatever it was. Clearly, he didn’t do relationships, and she was in no position to start one, either, but there was something between them she couldn’t ignore.
His thumb brushed her lips as he whispered, “Do you need me to say it?”
Slowly, she dragged her finger across his chest, up to the space between his collarbones. He shuddered beneath her, telling her all she needed to know. “Why say it when you can just… do it?”
His mouth was on hers in an instant.
He felt like she’d imagined he would, in her bed last night. Rough stubble, rougher kisses, with fingers hungry to explore the shape of her jaw, her neck, her shoulders. He was a sculptor and she was his clay, moulding into something new with every touch.
“We just need to get it out of our system,” she convinced herself between rasps and kisses. It didn’t feel like this would ever leave, though. She was a live wire, suddenly aware of every minute sensation in her body. Aware of places she hadn’t known existed until now.
“Yep. That’s all it is.” His hand slid up her thigh, stopping just before it reached the place where she wanted him most. “Can I touch you?” He was leaning over the gearstick now. It couldn’t have been comfortable, but he didn’t seem to care.
She groaned and shoved his hand further up her legs until it landed below her zipper. “Please.”
But he didn’t start there, instead shifting up her jumper, mouth roving the rolls of her stomach with reckless abandon. She shimmied over to wrap her legs around him, elbows and knees crashing into a thousand different things as she tried to get comfortable on his lap. If they were calmer, more sensible, they could have been doing this inside the cabin, but she wanted him more than she wanted to move away. Couldn’t risk that one of them might change their mind given the chance.
“I’ve been thinking about you for fucking days, sunshine,” he growled against her, and then her breasts were in his hands and he was drawing noises she’d never made before out of her. “That fucking vibrator. Your fucking shorts. Your curves, your thighs, your fucking mouth.” He moved back up to kiss her lips, sucking on her lower one until she squirmed. God, she’d never been touched like this. Like he might not survive if he didn’t coax out every hint of her pleasure.
She arched her back, yelping when her head slammed against the window. “There isn’t enough room in this bloody truck!”
He laughed, and it rumbled through every part of her like thunder. That . She wanted that against her, wanted it to run through her again and again. She raked her fingers through the thick waves of his red hair, tugging roughly until he kissed her again.
“We can move—”
“Don’t stop,” she pleaded. She wasn’t sure she could take his absence. Needed his weight against her body like she needed air.
So he didn’t, instead his eyes darkening at her command. One of his hands slid across her stomach, the other roughly palming her through her jeans. Stiff fabric rubbed against her clit, and she rocked her hips to feel more of it until she couldn’t bear it anymore. Until she was unzipping them, pushing them down her thighs in an awkward battle.
Fraser yanked her closer to him, eliciting another whimper of surprise from her. “There isn’t enough time to do everything I want to do with you,” he muttered. “All the ways I want to touch you, feel you.”
I’m here for months , she wanted to say, but she didn’t dare presume he might want her come tomorrow. Or the day after. Maybe they would wake up and feel satiated enough to brush aside their chemistry for good. Maybe he would regret it, regret her, and she would hate herself for letting him have her.
She wanted to recoil at that thought, but she’d come too far to go back now. So she tightened her legs around him. He looked up like he’d never seen anything like her, lips parted, arched neck flushed. She ran her fingers through his short beard, and he hummed with pleasure.
“I can trust you, can’t I?” she whispered, feeling suddenly, achingly vulnerable. “Whatever this is… you won’t make it weird? We’ll still be sort-of-friends? I’ll still stay in your cabin, and you’ll still take me to the Fairy Trail or whatever?”
His eyes softened to pools of blue. “Of course, love.”
“Okay. You can trust me, too. Probably.” She barely had time to laugh at her own joke. One moment, his fingers were curled into the soft cushion of her hips. The next, they were somewhere else entirely – massaging her through the damp fabric of her underwear.
She shivered, tensing against him until he kissed her neck. She fumbled for his belt buckle, then gasped as her thumb grazed the taut bulge beneath. “You’re so hard,” she breathed, kneading his cock through his jeans, relishing in the way he twitched against her.
“Fuck, Harper.”
His eyes fluttered shut. When they opened again, they were blazing with defiance. He crooked his finger inside her as though beckoning, and it didn’t take long for her to move with him, thrusting desperately as he swapped one finger for two, two for three. He didn’t have to fill her up: she was already a writhing, moaning mess, melting into him as her clit sought friction against his palm. Her hips luxuriating against his crotch must have teased him more, because he swore again, voice cracking.
“Use me,” he begged. She did, rolling her hips onto his hard thighs while he played with her. It was hard to believe she could feel this good when she was still covered, still mostly dressed, but his touch, his deep urgent voice, his deft fingers, kept her building towards delirium.
When she was close, she unzipped his jeans and took him in both hands at last, fingers curling around his impressive length. His hair-dusted belly shuddered against her touch, and she was certain she couldn’t take much more—
His fingers sank back into her, and there was no more holding on. She was falling all at once, orgasm rolling through her body. Fraser groaned, voice hitching as he came in her hands. Slowing, she rested her damp forehead against his, closing her eyes as he teased out the last of her climax in gentle circles.
“Well,” she said, “that was fun.”
“Aye.” He smirked, twirling his fingers through her dishevelled hair. His lips were swollen, neck red and bearing the crescent indentations of her nails.
Oops .
Something changed a moment later. Anyone else might not have noticed it, but Harper lived on high alert, always waiting for somebody’s interest to fade.
His didn’t, but it ebbed, his grip turning slack.
She drew off his lap, rolling her jeans back up and fastening them before she could feel too bare. He reached across her, pulling wipes from the glovebox so that they could both clean up. “So, is it out of your system?”
“You could say that,” he muttered, adjusting himself and zipping up his fly. “You?”
“Yup. Definitely,” she lied. Naturally, all she could think about was feeling the length of him again, seating herself on it, and riding him until she was seeing stars.
But that wasn’t what he wanted, and she was fine with that. Of course she was. A one-time hook-up was what she’d suggested, after all.
“It is alllll the way out,” she continued, because she was prone to rambling at the best of times, never mind when she didn’t know where she stood with someone. “Way, way out. You could probably find it in Glasgow. Or Carlisle, even.”
“Then I know where to go next time.” He ran a subdued hand over his cheek. “Will there be a next time?”
She tried not to show her excitement as she admitted, “I wouldn’t complain if there was.”
“We’re adults. We can have fun if we want to, can’t we?” He asked her like he wasn’t sure of the answer.
“I do believe those are the rules of adulthood, yeah. But if you’re not keen…”
“Oh, I’m keen,” he insisted quickly. “It’s just… Like I said earlier, I don’t do relationships.”
She looked down at her wrinkled clothing to avoid the intensity of his gaze. “Me neither. Not right now, at least. Then… We’ll see what happens, I guess? Keep things casual?”
He nodded. “Aye. Okay. Good.”
They shared a final, knowing smile that sent another zap through her body, and then she escaped the silence of the truck before she could pounce on him a second time. And a third. She wouldn’t have minded a third. She was known to be a bit greedy when she wanted.
And she very much wanted.
“Goodnight, then.” She cast him a wave, only then realising her fingers were shaking.
He returned it with a lopsided grin. “Night, Harper.”