Chapter 36 Nate
NATE
The road out of town was dark and empty.
Maya had her window down, one arm resting on the frame, her hair lifting in the night air, her other hand resting on my thigh. She hummed along to something on the radio, low and off-key, completely content just being there beside me.
I liked that about her. The way silence between us never felt like a gap that needed filling.
The turnoff for the river came up and I took it without slowing, the truck bouncing over the rutted dirt track that wound through the trees.
Moonlight cut through the canopy in silver slices, and the air changed as we got closer to the water.
Cooler. Damp. That earthy, mineral smell that I’d known my whole life.
I pulled up where the track ended and killed the engine. Maya climbed out while my hand still hovered over the ignition.
Getting out of the truck, I followed her down the bank to the flat stretch of rock where the river pooled wide and deep.
At the edge, she toed off her boots, nudged them aside, and pulled her shirt over her head in one smooth motion.
I went very still.
She shimmied her jeans down, stepped out of them, and kicked them onto the rock beside her boots. Then her bra. Then the last scrap of fabric, tossed over her shoulder without ceremony.
The light caught the long lines of her body, the dip of her waist, the curve of her hip. The air stilled in my lungs. Christ, she was gorgeous.
She glanced back at me over her shoulder. “You coming or what?”
With that, she turned and walked into the river, leaving my answer hanging in the damp air.
The water rose around her calves, her thighs, her perfect ass.
She let out a sharp gasp at the cold before sinking in to her shoulders.
Dropping her head back, her hair fanned out dark against the surface, she laughed. Quiet and easy, just for herself.
I was rooted to the spot. My brain had stalled somewhere around the moment her shirt cleared her head and hadn’t recovered.
“Oh, so you really are chicken shit?”
I stripped. Faster than I’d ever undressed in my life, probably, boots and jeans and everything else left in a pile on the rock. The water hit me like a slap when I waded in, cold enough to shock.
With her eyes closed, Maya tipped her face up to the sky, moonlight tracing the line of her neck.
The current was lazy, barely enough to drift us, so we floated in silence for a while.
A stillness settled over me, quiet and unexpected.
The word that came to mind was a rare one for me.
Peace.
With Maya floating beside me, her hair dark against the silver water, her eyes half closed, and the word sat there like a stone dropped into still water. Settling. Full of something I wasn’t ready to look at.
So I didn’t.
I reached for her instead. My hand found her waist beneath the surface, and I pulled her to me. She came easily, her body sliding against mine. All warm skin and cool water and her sharp inhale when she pressed against me.
Her legs wrapped around me. Her arms looped over my shoulders, her green eyes and sinful mouth wiping my mind completely blank.
“Hi,” she whispered, half smile, half dare.
I kissed her.
Her mouth was soft and hot against mine. I took my time with it, savoring the way her lips parted for me, the little sigh she gave when my tongue tangled with hers. One hand slid up her back, fingers twisting in her wet hair, the other gripping the curve of her ass to hold her steady against me.
She rocked her hips, in a lazy, teasing rhythm, brushing against my cock under the surface. I was already rock hard, aching. I groaned into her mouth, and she smiled against my lips
She broke the kiss just enough to nip at my lower lip. “Finally catching up, huh?”
“Shut up,” I muttered, but there was no heat in it. I chased her mouth again, kissing her deeper, hungrier. She stroked her tongue against mine, making my brain short-circuit.
Her hand slipped between us, fingers wrapping around me.
She stroked once, firm and teasing, then again, slower, like she was learning the shape of me.
I bucked into her grip, the cold water making every touch electric.
She let out a wicked laugh, and did it again, thumb circling the head on the upstroke.
“Jesus, Maya.”
“Mmm?” She tilted her head, all fake innocence while her hand kept working me with devastating patience. “Something wrong, O’Hare?”
With my brow arched, I slid my hand up, cupping her breast. The weight of it filled my hand perfectly, her nipple already tight from the cold river.
I rolled it between my thumb and forefinger.
Her mouth fell open on a sharp inhale. When I gave it a light pinch, her lower body jerked against me and her grip on my cock stuttered.
“Fuck, that sound you just made,” I muttered against her wet shoulder.
I lowered my head and closed my mouth over the other nipple, sucking it deep and warm while the river tried to cool us off.
Maya arched into me with a low, broken moan that went straight to my balls.
I swirled my tongue around the tight peak, then grazed it with my teeth just to feel her tremble.
Her hand tightened around me in retaliation, stroking harder, twisting at the top, making my vision spark. I groaned around her breast and doubled down, sucking harder while my other hand finally dipped between her thighs.
She was slicker than the river could ever account for. I traced her body with two fingers, parting her slowly, revelling in every soft, secret inch of her. When I circled her clit, her whole body jolted. I did it again, firmer this time, matching the lazy rhythm of my tongue on her nipple.
“Nate… God.” Her voice cracked on my name.
I slid one thick finger inside her, then a second, curling them just right.
The way her body clenched around me made me lose my rhythm on her breast for a second.
I recovered fast, sucking her nipple harder while I fucked her slowly with my fingers, my thumb still working her in tight little circles.
She let out a helpless little whimper that I wanted to bottle and keep forever.
Her breaths came faster, shallower. She tried to keep stroking me, but her grip kept tightening and loosening like she was torn between chasing her own pleasure or mine.
I lifted my head from her breast just long enough to growl against her ear, “Let go, Maya. I’ve got you. Come on my fingers first. I want to feel it. Come on, eyes on me.”
Her eyes were wild and glittering in the moonlight.
Her hips rocked shamelessly against my hand, chasing every curl of my fingers, every swipe of my thumb.
When she came, it was quiet and devastating.
Her body fluttered and then clamped down hard around my fingers, pulsing in long, rolling waves.
She made a soft, stunned sound, like the sheer pleasure of it completely shocked her, and her whole body shook against me.
I kept stroking her through it, gentling my touch and maintaining the rhythm, drawing it out until she was panting against my neck and her thighs trembled around my waist.
Only then did she reach between us again with a shaky hand, guiding the head of my cock to her entrance. Her voice was wrecked when she whispered against my mouth, “Slow. I want to feel all of you.”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah. Me too.”
I pushed in inch by inch. The stretch of her around me was tight, hot, perfect. Every tiny shift she made pulled me deeper. When I finally bottomed out, we stayed locked together, chests heaving, foreheads pressed close.
“Fuck, you feel…” I couldn’t even finish the sentence. My arms tightened around her, one hand splayed across her back, the other gripping her ass.
She rolled against me in a slow grind, testing. A soft moan slipped out of her, right against my ear. I answered with a shallow thrust, then another, finding a rhythm that made the water splash gently around us.
Her nails dug into my shoulders as she kissed my throat, my jaw, anywhere she could reach. Every time I dragged against that spot inside her, she made a little broken sound that lit me up from the inside.
I slid my hand between us again and circled her clit with my thumb, keeping the pressure light, matching the pace of my thrusts. Her head tipped back, exposing the long line of her throat. I leaned in and sucked a mark just below her jaw, possessive and helpless all at once.
“Nate,” she gasped.
Her eyes fluttered shut, lips parted, cheeks flushed even in the cool air. Her body clenched around me in rhythmic pulses, and the sight of her coming undone like that, because of me, was too much.
She came with my name on her lips again, body trembling, thighs locked tight around my waist. Her pussy milked me so perfectly I lost my grip on my control entirely. I drove deep one last time and followed her over, spilling inside her with a low groan that echoed off the rocks.
We clung to each other afterward, breaths syncing as the lazy current carried us in gentle drifts. Her head dropped to my shoulder. My lips brushed her damp hair.
Then Maya gave a full body shiver. “Okay,” she whispered, her teeth actually chattering. “I think my toes might fall off.”
I let out a rough laugh and pressed a kiss to her neck. “Let’s get you out of here, Slayer. I’m not keen on explaining to your parents how you got hypothermia.”
She snorted, burying her face in my neck as I scooped her into my arms and waded us toward the bank. “Good point.”