31. Josh
JOSH
D ove was breathtakingly beautiful.
But practically naked and slippery-wet against me?
She was torturingly beautiful. With each step I took out of the water, her body rubbed against mine in a way that nearly had me stumbling, clenching my teeth together and begging for strength every time her ass grazed the head of my cock just right as I crossed the clearing toward the truck.
There was nothing more I wanted than Dove.
This moment right here was everything I’d secretly pined for when I’d been home, and everything I’d cursed myself for wanting when I wasn’t.
She was my once forbidden fruit, and now that I could reach out and have a taste, I was afraid I’d take far too big a bite out of her.
The last thing I wanted was to do wrong by her.
Not again. Never again. I’d done too much of that in the past, first with even harboring the kind of thoughts and feelings for her when I shouldn’t have, and then by leaving her without any explanation.
She deserved more than me, even I recognized that, but for some reason her heart had chained itself to mine.
What a pair we made.
I kept a tight grip on her, although she was testing me as her mouth sucked droplets of lake water from my skin, causing me to groan with how good her lips felt sliding along my skin.
It only stoked my desire to get my mouth on her , to coax every sigh and moan out of her until they were echoing out around the clearing as I made her lose her mind.
Taking the last several steps to the truck slower, I attempted to cool my jets, pulling myself back from her bright flame that guided me toward it like a mesmerized moth.
I didn’t want this to be like any of my other encounters—fast, hard, and forgettable.
I certainly didn’t want it to be like any of hers .
I wanted this to be everything for her and more, not only because it was her first time, but, more importantly, because it was Dove and that’s the least of what she deserved.
I placed her on the tailgate, and she gasped as the cool metal kissed her bare flesh. I didn’t make her wait long as I heaved myself up a moment later and hauled her back into the makeshift bed I’d instructed Reverie to make the comfiest damn thing she’d ever made in her life.
She was laid out beneath me, rivulets of water running down her body with her wet hair fanned out around her, and I nearly lost it right there. My balls drew up tight, and my breath hitched.
God, she was beyond gorgeous, an ethereal goddess sent to tempt me.
“Josh,” she yelped, wide-eyed beneath me. “We’re soaking wet!”
“So?” I hovered over her, smirking as the fairy lights illuminated the water on her skin like specks of glitter I very much wanted to lick off.
“I’m hoping to make you a whole lot wetter.
” Unable to resist, I bent until my tongue could catch the stray bead of water that trailed down the valley between her breasts.
Her lips parted, stunned, as she flushed pink.
“First things first,” I spoke into her skin, exhaling in a cool puff that caused her damp flesh to ripple with goose bumps and tightened her nipples into tempting buds beneath her bra, which only made me want to rip it off with my teeth even more.
My hands traced up her arms until my fingers curled under the straps at her shoulders and tugged.
“Let’s get this off. I want to see every bare inch of you spread out in front of me.
” I bit at the swell of her breast above the cups covering her from me, relishing in the sharp inhale she sucked in.
I watched her swallow, twitching beneath me, her legs unable to close where they tangled with mine.
I bet if I reached a hand down right now, I’d find her hot and so very ready for me.
I’d never been with someone as responsive as Dove before.
I could have her moaning into a kiss, damn near wet enough to slide in with just a few sly touches.
That kind of power could go to a man’s head.
Dove made to lean up, but before she could remove her bra herself, I had the three prongs in the back unclasped, and the sodden fabric down her arms before she could blink.
Her bare back hit the blankets, and she blinked up at me in all her naked glory, every mouthwatering dip and curve exposed for me and only me.
As it should be , my hindbrain thought possessively.
I typically wasn’t a jealous, possessive person, but Dove got me all twisted up inside. Somehow, she had the darkest, deepest parts of me rushing to the surface. Parts of me no one had ever seen before, including myself.
When it came to her, she turned me into someone I normally wasn’t.
For better and for worse.
I tossed her bra carelessly behind me as I knelt back, looking my fill unabashedly, not caring to hide the fact my eyes were eating up every inch of her body.
She was as striking as one of those renaissance paintings hung up in museums. I was simply her spectator, wishing to learn the secret to her beauty, taking in every unique brush stroke, hoping the answer was somewhere within its depths.
Her arms tensed, as if she wanted to cover herself.
I couldn’t help but feel proud when she resisted.
Good girl. Dove never had to feel self-conscious of her body around me.
Like I’d told her before, I loved every part of her, from the faded stretch marks around her rounded hips that made me want to sink my teeth into them to the various beauty marks that dotted her skin that were just made for kissing.
But by far my favorite was her plump thighs, which were the closest I’d ever get to heaven when she wrapped them around my head and squeezed.
I wasn’t a religious person by any means, but I was expecting that might change the moment she wrapped her legs around my hips as I sank deep inside her.
“You’re the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen.” The words spilled from my mouth in awe-filled sincerity. I couldn’t hold them back, not when the truth was burning in my chest like heartburn. I could feel her right there in my sternum, tucked up in the chambers of my heart.
She bit her lip as her gaze trailed down my body in turn, eyes darkening as they descended. “I was going to say the same thing.”
The burn in my chest moved south, and it took my all not to pounce on her and take what I hadn’t yet been given.
I shook my head, causing drops of water to rain down on her.
“No, baby,” I argued, descending to lick a stray droplet of water from her stomach. “That title belongs to you and only you.” She gasped as I bit into the sweet softness of her belly. “No one else.”
“ I belong to you,” she whispered vehemently, threading her hands into my hair, holding me close.
I shuddered at her words. This girl was bound to ruin me, but I could only focus on one thing right now.
Pleasing my girl.
Dove
Josh’s tongue was dangerous.
It had my heart pounding and my blood turning into molten lava.
It had me saying things I normally would keep locked deep inside.
Things like, “I belong to you.”
Those words had been secretly tattooed on my heart for so long, it was hard to believe they were out into the world for Josh to hear. I’d been his since before I realized it. Since he’d coaxed me out of that car with a parade of kittens and then let me keep one.
He’d given me a cat; I’d given him my heart.
Even if I hadn’t known it at the time.
He bit at the flesh of my stomach, looking up at me with that devilish grin of his, and every moment I’d hopelessly longed for his return was soothed.
Every wish I’d spoken into the star-filled sky was answered.
Having him look at me so lovingly erased the three years I’d spent desperately longing for him, missing him to the point of physical pain.
But now that he was here, I ached for him.
Tightening the fingers I’d weaved into his hair, I pulled him up to me, taking what I could have had for three long years if things might have gone differently.
My lips claimed his fiercely, my tongue swiping over his bottom lip with urgency.
Because this was urgent; if I didn’t have Josh now, I was afraid he might slip through my fingers like fine grains of sand and disappear again.
The deep groan that escaped him had me clenching against the ache in my core, fueling me to go farther, urging me to crawl into this boy and never leave, so he couldn’t leave me .
I’d carve a space out for myself in his heart and become a permanent fixture.
“ Fuck ,” he cursed gravelly.
I nipped at his bottom lip in reply, raking my nails through his hair until they reached the base of his neck, where I cupped my palms around his neck and pulled him closer, tilting my head so our lips slotted together perfectly.
My thumbs pressed against his pulse points, which fluttered wildly under the jut of his jaw.
Our exchange from all those weeks ago echoed in my head.
“Tell me you want me to.”
“To what?”
“Ruin you.”
He may have ruined me for anyone else the moment his lips touched mine, but I wanted to ruin him right back. No one made me feel the things Josh did; a desperate, pulsing need combined with an uncontrollable craving that wouldn’t be sated until I’d finally had him, and he’d finally had me.
I slipped my leg over his hip to gain leverage and rocked up, moaning as the thick length of him rubbed against my clit. A too brief shock of pleasure raced through me, and I tightened myself around him, needing every inch of Josh pressed against me. In me.
“Baby, shit , wait,” he panted, his breath coming out haggard along my cheek as he broke our kiss. As if he hadn’t spoken, I continued to grind against him, feeling him twitch along the crease of my thigh. “ Dove .”
“I want you.” More than I want anything in this world. “I need you.” More than I need my next breath.