Chapter 2 #3
Whatever he may have been about to say died a very short death as I threw his childhood moniker back at him.
Sunny called him her widdle fluffy wuffy man when she thought no one was within earshot.
Of course, I’d heard this and socked it away.
Elm was her sweet Elmy welmy, and Birch was her lil snooky wooky.
Cy’s mouth began to move as he did this weird blink-blink thing, a shocked stupor if I’d ever witnessed one, but all that happened after that was his lips flapping open and closed until he was full on fish-mouthed gaping.
Well, that’ll definitely buy me a minute or two.
When I would have pulled away, he gave a single hard blink and then his grip tightened.
Elm barked something sharply in that weird growling, snapping they liked to use that had Cy snapping out of it. With a snarling grumble of his own, Cy grunted and mumbled something that sounded an awful lot like stubborn and stupid, and then practically dragged me over to my car.
“Hey! I’m walkin’ here!” I barked as he gave up trying to herd me and just picked me up, stiff and unyielding as I was, to tote me, his arms banding around me tight pressing me up against an impressive set of shirt covered pecs and thick slab of abs.
Cy worked out. A lot. Good to know? I dunno. This crap was confusing. Being squished up against him like this was… It had my brain on the fritz.
He smelled nice too, but that doesn’t matter.
I mean, really nice, a sort of fresh, woodsy scent mixing with the heat of him, pressed up tight to him as I was— it was kinda distracting— but that’s beside the point.
“I won’t take it. I already told Sunny,” I warned him.
Staring at him, pressed up tight like this, it was kinda hard not to notice just how disgustingly blue his eyes were, the same color as the sky when it’s all crisp and blue and deep.
The stubble visible coming in around his eyes, forehead, and nose was long enough he’d be shaving today.
It looked silky soft to the touch. Did anyone ever ask to touch his face?
How weird would that be? Would he have allowed me to brush my fingers over his face fuzz back in the day?
Crap. Where did that come from? What the hell is wrong with me?
I felt totally discombobulated, just plumb out of it, dizzy with the scent of him thick in the air. It was scrambling my brain!
Cy stopped dead in his tracks, almost right there in front of my car.
Leaning in, those big old baby blues lasered in on me.
He got a shiver out of me as the tufts of fluff peeking from his beard tickled my cheek, his breath coasted over my exposed throat in my loose coat, and he- did he- “Are you sniffing me?” I spluttered.
Staring at him, wide-eyed, hazel eyes bugging, I made no move to squirm free. I felt stuck, struck.
“Cy-press.” Elm grumbled his brother’s name threateningly, so loud it felt like he was standing right next to us.
Cy pulled back with something close to a half smirk twitching at his lips.
His lower lip was fuller than the upper.
A very pink tongue peeked to run along his teeth.
Feeling like I was in a trance, I just kept staring, watching, waiting.
And… I’m staring at his mouth. I’m thinking about his mouth, wondering what he’d taste like— the hint of mint on his breath or… Gah.
“We’re at my car,” I blurted as he backed me up against it, until I felt the bite of the cold metal at my back and reality trickled in.
The hardness of my car and the heat of his touch contrasted, reality and this weird fantasy building itself in my brain as we speak simply at his closeness vying for my complete and total attention, thick mitts gripping me so tightly to him I felt molded against him.
“You could put me down now.” I’m whispering but can’t rightly say why.
This all felt very… intimate.
Me, intimate with Cypress Tree? Mr Too Cool For Anybody?
My cheeks pinkened at the thought.
When Cy just stood there, continuing to hold me, still in some sort of grunting, growling stand off with Elm that makes no sense to me, it was a full minute, definitely more, before he slowly, striking me as reluctant to let me go for reasons I struggled to understand, released me.
The action, with him this close, sent me sliding down his heavily muscled chest.
Stunned, I did little more than slowly glide down him like pleather down a metal slide— if I could creak loudly and bump and flop along I’d bet I freaking would— there was no finesse in this whatsoever, and yet I was so gobsmacked I did little else but creak along incrementally, mentally cataloguing every bump and muscled lump along the way— mouth open in a shocked gape.
By the time the tips of my boots touched the ground, I was so flustered, completely out of my element on this one, redder than a beet, I probably couldn’t have told you my name, let alone how to spell it.
It was very strange being this close to Cy, pressed together like this.
Yeah. Strange. Let’s go with that.
Super strange.
A soft rumble started up in Cy’s chest. My hands were still on his person, right over the spot, numb with the noise he was making.
“Pru.” I’ve never heard Cy’s voice like that, soft but deepening, a rumbling whisper.
Another shiver overtook me. I couldn’t help but think how nice this all felt. When was the last time someone had held me close, spoke to me like that?
Never.
“Look, if this is about your ma’s note,” I started, struggling to regain my composure, “I already told her-”
“Always want talk. Talk, talk, talk,” Cy taunted. Lifting a hand with a sigh, followed by a short, huffy grumble, he mimed talking at me.
Slapping his hand down, weird emotions flooding me shoved to the back burner, annoyance won out. “Fine. Get to it then, Otis.”
I was growling. I know I was. Cy had that effect on me. He knew just how to push my buttons. He could annoy me as fast as he could calm me down. Not much has changed at all but for him having a few growth spurts, apparently.
“Cy,” Elm called out, his voice so deep and guttural he sounded inhuman.
Cy looked Elm’s way briefly, just long enough to break eye contact with me to give Elm a meaningful look before that icy blue gaze was back on me.
Of all the things I thought Cy was going to do, say something dumb, insult me some more, shove his mother’s envelope at me, reaching out to tug my beanie back into place, then brushing the stray hairs of my wig away from my face, studying me like he was waiting for something from me, his lips tipped into a smile I can’t believe I’m about to describe as sexy, because that’s exactly what it was— arrogant, cocky, pleased with himself, sinful, downright sexy— it was a struggle to comprehend what had just happened.
I was still blink-blinking stupidly at him as gooseflesh pebbled my skin when he muttered something about waiting or being done waiting, I wasn’t entirely sure, then leaned in so fast I barely had time to react, placing his lips upon mine.
Warm. That was the second thought that struck me as his lips met mine. Pleasant. More. Shock beat all. Cypress Tree was kissing me… and I liked it.
The kiss was brief, too brief. I felt the loss of it, of his heat as he broke our liplock, pulled back, and met my gaze immediately.
Swallowing thickly, staring up at him while the world spun around me and heat unfurled low in my belly while it did wild somersaults, I made a noise at the loss of him— it was hard to make it out as my pulse thundered in my ears.
My hands, still pressing to his chest, were curled in his shirt like I meant to keep him there.
Thick fingers fell over mine. It made me want to curl into him tighter and purr.
Blue eyes bore into mine as he smoothed his fingers down the backs of mine, down the back of my hands, pausing to press at my wrist as if testing my pulse.
Words were not computing. I forgot how to breathe, to think. Thought flew right out the window. All I could focus on was that kiss, on him.
In the back of my mind, I knew my response was extreme, which kind of freaked me out, but I was too busy thinking about him placing his mouth back to mine to care.
This is going to haunt me. The stray thought struck me.
Eyeing him as he studied me, I licked my lips. What if I’m building this up? Will this be yet another thing I’ll regret forever and ever?
Only one way to find out… and he did start all of this. Just one more taste, that’s all I wanted.
Dragging him back to me without a word, ignoring the surprised noise he made, I planted one right back on him, just like he had me.
That surprised noise slipped into a rumble that was soft at first but grew so deep, so long and loud my fingers grew numb from the vibration as I clutched him to me.
The urge to rub myself against him and growl a little lit a fire in my brain.
Why him? Why did this male ignite this- this primal feeling buried deep within me?
One kiss and I wanted to rip his clothes off and suck his tongue clean out of his head.
At the first hint of tongue, I automatically opened to him.
It had never been like this… this intense, all-consuming. Typical teenage angsty boy stuff hadn’t hit me like a ton of bricks. I’d kissed a few men once I’d reached adulthood, on the rare occasion I accepted a date, but it was never- I never felt- It was never like this.
Cy broke our heated smooch long enough to rumble out a soft, surprised, “Pru” that I’d swear on a stack of bibles was just shy of a purr, and dove right back in.
My fingers crept higher, until my hands were at the back of his head, digging into the hair at his nape, his hands doing a bit of moving around as well. One of his hands slid up my back so he was cupping the back of my head, the other pressing into my lower back, urging me closer.
A guttural noise cut in on the moment.