20 Evie
20 Evie
Hu ? , Vi ? t Nam
They’re quiet for a moment, huddled next to the fire, listening to the dying sounds of the day.
Then, in a small voice, Evie asks, “Are there really tigers?”
“Well, yes, but not many in the wild anymore. Unfortunately. But even if there were, they won’t get close to the caves.”
“How do you know?”
“They’re not exactly eager to meet humans, and these caves are tourist destinations.”
“Not today,” Evie says, gesturing around. “I can hear my own heart thudding out here. And your annoying voice.”
“You love my annoying voice.”
“In small—very small—doses.”
He grins at her lukewarm admission. “I’ll take it. So, what do you want to do?”
It’s Evie’s turn to tease. “Quote each other’s poetry?”
Adam flushes. Evie takes the opportunity to drink in his handsome features, lit by the flicker of the fire. Those beautiful,
lush lips. The way his forearms clench and thicken as he busies himself, adjusting tents and lanterns around the campsite.
Not meeting her gaze.
But she knows his secret now. He researched her. He read her poetry . This is more than many of her actual boyfriends have done. It thrills her, this sudden realization. And all she wants to do is shake him up. Make him pay attention to her. For days, whatever is between them has been simmering away. All she wants is to find that release.
To lay it all out on the table.
With that thought, while his back is turned, she shucks off her hoodie, then her tank top. The leggings and underwear go flying
soon after. She whoops and runs. By the time he’s twisted toward the sound, she’s already neck-deep in the small pool in the
heart of the cave, near the dark tunnel they didn’t enter. She splutters in the cold water. It’s silk on her skin. A lover’s
caress. Adam’s eyes widen as he takes in her bare shoulders, the slight swell along the top of her breasts.
“I told you I forgot my suit,” she yells.
His face reflects indecision. There’s a moment of choice. She sees it happening in front of her, that relentless mind weighing
the costs. But just this once, she wants him to stop thinking.
“Come in,” she calls. Then, more softly, “Please.”
“I don’t think you want me to do that,” he rasps.
“I don’t think you know what I want,” she says, fluttering her lashes. “In fact, I think you might be a little scared of what I want.”
Something glimmers in his eyes, just for a second, like a hot spark hitting dry hay. Challenge, answering hers. He begins
peeling off his clothes. Even though she knows she should give him privacy, she can’t take her eyes off him. And she nearly
comes undone when he holds her gaze as he lifts his shirt, then steps out of his pants and boxers. She gasps at the sight
of him, shadowed by the fading sunlight. His perfect abs leading down to a dip next to his hipbone and then the solid length
of him, every inch of his body muscled, taut. Waiting for something. Waiting for her.
Then he’s in the water, silently gliding closer. She thinks there’s something panther-like about him, this air of power and
danger. His arms loosely encircle her body, but he leaves some space between them. Leaving it up to her.
“So what do you want, sweetheart?” he asks.
She shivers. It takes her no time at all to surge up toward his body, wrapping her legs around his waist. His breath quickens, fast and hot on her face. She feels his hard length underneath her.
“Fuck, Evie,” he mumbles.
She leans over and whispers in his ear, “It was a condom. Fen gave me a condom.”
Adam makes a noise from deep in his throat, something like a growl, pure animal, pure want, and slams his lips on hers. This
time, there’s no hesitation. He takes the kiss from her roughly, parting her mouth with his tongue, drawing out the quiet
mews as she sags under the headiness of his kiss. Her fingers entwine in his hair. And his fingers... God, his fingers
are everywhere. In the dip of her back. Molding down her body, thumbs rubbing over her erect nipples, palming her abdomen.
The water swishes around them.
“Don’t stop,” she murmurs.
“Are you sure, baby?” he asks, his voice low and gravelly with desire. She shudders at the endearment. “Because once I start,
a goddamn earthquake would not stop me.”
When she nods, unable to speak, caught up in the waves of pleasure he’s wringing from her body, his fingers travel lower,
until they find the slick heat of her. He’s stroking softly at first, but then, once he finds the most sensitive parts of
her, he rubs with insistency, sending her mind reeling. But it’s not thoughts that run through her mind—she sees colors, hears
the sound of the lapping water, of his heavy breath. She feels .
Then he slips a finger inside her. She nearly comes apart then, but he continues to push her past the limits of pleasure,
stroking as his fingers—two now—enter and exit her in a slow, punishing rhythm that makes her writhe against him. He hits
every nerve ending.
“Yes,” she gasps. “Faster.”
“You’re so ready for me,” he says. “Show me how you come, sweetheart.”
The universe expands and contracts at his words. She’s so close to her pleasure. So close to him. His fingers dance in and
out of her, excavating the wetness inside her.
“Adam,” she says, voice catching. “Please—”
He captures her mouth just as she comes in shuddering breaths that leave her body feeling like seaweed, loose and untethered
from the world. He kisses her back to earth with slow and tender little touches that make her feel like she’s floating. She
is floating. He holds her up, breathing into her neck. As he removes his fingers, she’s conscious of the way she’s clinging
to him, resting her head against his chest.
That was, by far, the hottest experience of her life. She could sleep for a thousand years in the aftermath of her pleasure.
But, underneath her, he’s still thick and throbbing. She wants to give him the same pleasure he gave her.
With Herculean effort, she unwinds her legs. He makes a gesture of protest as if to cradle her back to him, but then she swims
away from him to the edge of the pond. Slowly, feeling her power, she allows him to watch her as she sashays out of the water,
landing at the edge of the tarp near their campsite. She sits, wet and naked, arms placed behind her body so that it’s thrust
out, like an offering for him.
“Come here,” she commands.
In a second, he’s out of the water too, and his body is poised on top of hers. With one deft, unusually athletic movement,
she switches their bodies so she’s on top of him. She takes his lips, tugging on his bottom lip lightly with her teeth. He
curses under his breath, which makes her smile and take her time winding her way down his body, kissing languidly, until she
can take his throbbing length fully into her mouth.
“Oh, my God,” he says. “This is—you are—”
She continues to suck and stroke, touching his inner thighs, all the secret places of his. She feels no shame in her exploration.
She thinks, Whatever is between us, that’s all there is. Tension builds in her own thighs and all she wants is to get on top of him. To join him. All she wants is more .
“More, huh?” he asks roughly.
She hadn’t realized she said it aloud, but now she reaches for the condom from the depths of her backpack and rips it open.
She drapes it on him.
“More everything,” she breathes.
Then, never losing eye contact, she lowers herself on top of him. His mouth drops open as he enters her. She lifts herself
off his body, then rapidly descends, wringing a surprised, ecstatic grunt from him. The way they fit is like nothing she’s
ever experienced. Heat and wetness and friction that builds, like a flood, sending shivers of sensation up her legs, into
her senseless brain that is lit up with nothing but pure bliss.
She leans over to kiss him, and he’s grabbing her ass, directing her where he wants to go. Never losing control, even when
she’s on top. They’re going faster and harder and now, there’s no turning back for her. The stars get close again.
She bites her lip, moaning as he hits the parts of her that no one else has managed to, sparking something teasing, something
immeasurably sweet inside her.
He says, with a kind of fierce savagery dragged from deep inside, “Baby, it’s just us. Scream as loud as you want.”
And she does. She screams his name again and again as he switches position, pounding harder into her every time, until it
feels like they are inseparable. She wraps her legs around his waist and he gives one final, heady thrust as they both come
undone together, exploding into a heap of spent pleasure and delicious, thrilling sensation.
They lie still, with his head on her shoulder, her legs still wrapped around him. Their breaths are perfectly in tune. To
Adam and Evie, at this moment, there’s no cave. There’s no pond, no prowling tigers or looming forests. It’s just the two
of them, lost in an incandescent world of their own making.