Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
FOREST
The bedroom window was open, letting in the cool summer breeze with a hint of sea air. It was a little warmer up here than the Bay, but breezier than Mill Valley, and it looked like a whole different world than the suburb I’d been spending most of my time in.
This whole world was alien to me. Growing up in East Texas, it was flats and forests with hot, humid summers and vicious storms that sometimes felt like they’d never end.
The first time I set eyes on the ocean, I was seventeen.
Creek was home for leave, and we’d taken a road trip to Galveston to visit one of his friends there.
This was not like Galveston.
And the person standing so close that I could feel his body heat was not my brother.
Taking a breath, I came to a stop near the window, and Nash’s footsteps continued until he was right behind me. There was a moment—a single breath—and then one arm wrapped around my waist. He tugged me close to him, and for a moment, I could feel his rapid heartbeat against my back.
“Are you nervous?”
He chuckled softly against my ear. “No. Well…a little.”
I wanted to point out that we’d done this before, but it wasn’t like this at the house. That had felt more like a favor. A hot, steamy, sexy favor, but still. This was different. This felt like a moment. I was afraid to say anything, afraid to shatter what this could be.
But I was also afraid to let it go too deep. There wasn’t a chance in hell I wouldn’t fall for Nash. That was nothing short of inevitable. But I wanted to protect myself from being entirely shattered when this all came to an end.
I kept my gaze out on the water. The waves were small, but there were a couple of people paddling out on boards. “Do you surf?”
He snorted. “No. Heath’s gotten me out on the water a few times, but it’s not my strong suit. I couldn’t balance.”
“I wouldn’t even want to try,” I admitted, laughing, though the truth was that it was a little gutting to think about one more thing I’d probably never be able to do.
Not that surfing had been a passion of mine, but I hated becoming aware of new limits.
“There are more fun things to do on the beach anyway.” With that, he leaned in. I felt his breath at first—soft and warm ghosting across my neck. Then came his lips—warm and soft, scratchy from his freshly shaved beard. It sent shivers down my spine.
“Nash,” I whispered, unable to stop myself.
His grip on me tightened. “I really like the way you say my name.”
I felt different. Bold. Unafraid. Leaning back into him, I tipped my head back against his shoulder, giving him access to the rest of my neck. “Nash. Please.”
He groaned, then sank his teeth into my tendon, sucking lightly as he pulled back. The arm around my waist loosened just enough so he could push his hand under the hem of my shirt, and his rough palm made contact with my stomach.
My abs jumped and my legs felt weak, but this time, it wasn’t from my disorder. This time, it was from how powerfully I wanted him.
His hand crept farther until his fingers circled my left nipple, and my cock thickened behind the zipper of my jeans. I rocked backward against him, grinding my ass against his crotch, and I could feel him growing hard in return.
“I don’t know what you want,” he murmured. “How far do you want to go?”
I looked up at him as he stared down at me. There wasn’t a huge height difference between us, but right now, it felt like he was towering over me. His eyes were bright and honest as they locked with mine.
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “Besides that night you…” I couldn’t say it aloud. “It’s been a while since I’ve done anything with anyone.”
He removed his hand from my shirt and turned me, cupping my cheek with strong fingers as he eased me back against the window frame. The breeze fluttered around my hair, and I took a deep breath of sea air as he rolled his hips into mine, lifting one of my legs so it wrapped around his hips.
I was stable between his body and the window, and I let myself relax in that hold.
“Can I tell you what I’d like to do?”
The low rumble of his voice made my dick throb, and I fought the urge to shove my hand down my pants and squeeze it. “Yeah. Yes.”
He smiled and leaned in, grazing a kiss over the edge of my jaw. “I’d like to taste you.”
“Where?”
Nash groaned softly as his other hand coasted down my back, reaching as close to my ass as he could before the window frame got in the way. “Here.” He moved his hand to my front, where I was desperate to be touched. “Here.” His fingers went back to my nipple over the shirt, and he pinched. “Here.”
I swallowed heavily.
“Everywhere,” he added.
My breath trembled as I exhaled. “I want that too.”
“To taste or be tasted?”
“Either. Both. Whatever you want.”
“That is dangerous to say to me,” he told me plainly. He eased back just a bit, his powerful thighs still holding me in place. “I want to do so much with you, Forest.”
Oh. I liked the way my name sounded when he said it like that. Like he was sipping wine and rolling it on his tongue. The F sound started at the front of his lips, then rolled the O and R toward the back of his throat before exhaling the E, S, T.
“We have time,” I said. And I meant it. Here, but also at home. Anywhere we wanted, for as long as we wanted.
For as long as this lasted.
“Yes,” he said, and took me by the waist, spinning me around and backing me toward the bed. “We do.”
The backs of my knees hit the mattress, and I went down. The bed was probably soft beneath me, but I wouldn’t have known. Nash caught me before I landed and swept me into a kiss as he lowered me onto the plush comforter.
Groaning softly, I arched into him as he devoured my mouth, his hands roaming, undoing zippers and buttons, tugging until our naked skin met. We hadn’t done this. I’d felt his hand on me, but that was nothing compared to his body.
He was muscular in some places, soft in others, his age showing in the very slight roundness of his stomach when he wasn’t flexing. His cock was hard as it pressed between my legs, and he let out a ragged groan when I parted my thighs for him.
Kissing down my neck, he began to thrust gently, the head of his dick gently rubbing against my balls, and for a moment, I thought I was going to lose it right there. But just as my breath began to stutter, he eased back and looked down at me.
There was something in his eyes, something I might have been able to read, but I was too afraid. I needed to build up a wall so the pain that would inevitably come when our marriage was over wouldn’t ruin me.
“Forest,” he whispered softly.
My stomach clenched. Every time I laid a single brick, he tore it down.
“Tell me what you need right now. What you want. Are you—” He took a breath. “Are you okay?”
Oh. He was checking in with me. With my body. I lifted my hands, and for the first time in a long time, my muscles were relaxed and stable. I cupped his cheeks with both palms and held him there for a moment, eyes locked, breathing in sync.
“I’m okay.”
He opened his mouth, expression like he was about to ask if I was sure, but then he shook his head and dove into another kiss instead. It was hot, possessive, as if he were afraid that if he stopped, this would all be over.
I understood a little too well what that feeling was like.
Scraping nails down the sides of his ribs, I spread my legs wider, wrapping my calves around the backs of his thighs and urging him to get even closer. His weight pinned me to the bed, and he rolled his hips into mine, grunting softly when our hard dicks aligned and brushed together.
“Not sure how long I’m gonna last,” he admitted, voice ragged and thready.
“That’s okay. Me too.”
He pulled back and looked at me, then laughed and dove into my neck, dragging his teeth over my pulse point.
“Can we get off like this? And I can fulfill my promises later? I just…” He shuddered as his hips began to pick up speed with his thrusts.
“Sweetheart, baby,” he said the words like he was lost, babbling.
“I need to let go. To take the edge off.”
“Do it,” I told him. I grabbed him by the ass, fingers kneading the fleshy globes, feeling the way they tensed as he thrust his hips back and forth, dragging his cock between our bodies. “I want you to come on my dick.”
“Shit, shit,” he gasped. I felt him thicken, his dick kicking hard. He lifted, feverish eyes meeting mine, then he dove into a hard kiss as he slammed his hips down—over and over—a fap fap fap noise filling the room as he chased his orgasm.
Mine was too far, yet I didn’t care. I felt good.
Feeling him lose it completely was ecstasy in itself.
It was an indulgence I’d never realized I wanted.
Or needed. But knowing that a man like him—a man who spent his entire life giving to other people, too often at the expense of himself—was willing to let go like this?
On me?
Because of me?
It was everything. Nash squeezed me tightly enough to steal the air from my lungs and cried out sharply against my neck as I felt him spill.
Cum shot out, thick spurts coating my dick and lower stomach as he shuddered.
His tight muscles began to unwind as his thrusts slowed, and after a short forever, he pulled back and looked at me.
He was pink-cheeked and slightly breathless. He also looked a little ashamed. “Forest, I…”
“No.”
He blinked in surprise.
“You’re going to do something ridiculous like apologize, and I don’t want to fucking hear it.”
He looked startled, probably from the fact that I swore at him, but this moment called for it. He swallowed heavily. “You didn’t come though. Did you?”
“No. But I don’t need to right now,” I added when he started to look a bit panicked. “This was enough.”
“I wanted this moment to be for us,” he said very quietly. He seemed a little unsure what to do with himself, or what to think.