Chapter 40
COLT
The sun was on its way down. The soft glow cast everything in yellow and orange.
The swell had settled down to almost nothing.
Long, slow rollers that barely made a sound when they broke.
We’d been on the water for a couple of hours.
I watched her paddle ahead of me, her silhouette dark against the fading light.
Her hair was wet and hanging down her back.
She moved through the water without thinking about it. I followed her.
She angled north, away from the main stretch of beach. I knew without asking where she was going. I’d seen her look in that direction a few times while we were out on the water. A glance that held a second too long.
Her favorite spot. We’d already floated pretty far and were closer to the alcove than we were to our houses.
We moved around a gentle curve of the shoreline.
The opening faced south and caught the last of the light.
A different world from the open beach. Quieter.
The kind of place that felt like a secret.
She paddled in without hesitating. I came in behind her.
The boards scraped sand almost immediately.
The water was barely knee deep here at the shoreline.
She slid off her board and pulled it up onto the narrow strip of beach.
I did the same. It was darker in the private alcove with the tall grass shielding the area.
She turned around and looked at me. I didn’t say anything.
Neither did she. There wasn’t anything that needed saying right then.
I crossed the few feet of sand between us.
She tilted her head up toward me. Her lashes were still wet.
The freckles across the bridge of her nose were more prominent after a full day in the sun. I’d never seen a more beautiful sight.
I put my hands on her face, my thumbs brushing the salt from her skin. She leaned into it the way she always did. Like she was giving herself to me. I kissed her. Her arms moved up and wrapped around my neck. Her wet top pressed against my bare chest.
I pulled back just enough to look at her. Her lips were parted. Her eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the near dark. She looked up at me with that expression that undid me completely. She smiled at me. That was the kind of smile that made my heart swell.
She stepped in closer and pressed her forehead to my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her in. Her arms went around my waist, her cheek against my sternum. I could feel her breathing. Slow and even.
We’d been dancing around each other all afternoon and I didn’t think I could restrain myself any longer. “Summer?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“I want you.”
She laughed softly. “I noticed.”
“I don’t have a condom.”
“I’m on birth control and I haven’t been with anyone in a long time. Just you.”
I flinched. Was she actually saying what I thought she was saying? There had only been one other time we had sex without a condom. That had been a drunken night and I felt like an asshole about it. But now she was offering herself to me without a barrier.
Fuck. How am I supposed to reject that?
I pulled back to look at her. The last of the light caught her face, her lips still parted from the kiss, her eyes dark and waiting.
“You’re sure?” My voice sounded like I’d been gargling glass.
“Yes.”
That was all I needed.
I kissed her again, my hands sliding from her face into her wet hair.
She moaned against my mouth. I swallowed it.
I walked her backward until we were in the grass and hidden from anyone that might happen to float by on the water.
She gasped when the blades brushed her skin.
I used the moment to drag my mouth down her throat, tasting salt and sun on her skin.
I grabbed the bikini top she was wearing and peeled it up her body and over her head. I stepped back just far enough to look at her. Her chest rose and fell quickly, her skin flushed from the sun and from me.
“God, Summer.”
She reached for me but I caught her wrists.
“Not yet.”
I turned her, pressing her palms flat against the rock wall that provided further privacy.
I ran my hands slowly down her sides, over the flare of her hips, hooking my thumbs into the waistband of her bikini bottoms and pulling them down her legs.
She stepped out of them without being asked. Her legs were trembling.
I pressed my lips to the curve of her shoulder, her spine, the small of her back. She dropped her head forward and exhaled a long, shaking breath.
“Colt, that feels so good.”
I slipped my hand between her legs, running my palm up the interior of her thigh, and then cupped her sex.
I felt the heat. She was so ready for me.
I pushed her against the wall, using one knee to spread her legs.
My fingers teased her, pulling soft moans from her while my teeth skated across the back of her neck.
“So fucking good,” she moaned.
I pressed my body against her back, one hand flat against the rock wall beside hers, the other still working between her thighs. She was slick and swollen under my fingers and every small sound she made went straight through me.
“Please,” she breathed against the stone.
I reached between us and freed myself, dragging the head of my cock through her slickness, feeling her shudder. She pushed her hips back against me. I had to clench my jaw to keep from losing it right there.
“Someone is impatient,” I teased.
She moaned, wiggling her ass against me.
“Easy,” I murmured against her ear.
“Colt.”
“Fuck, woman. You drive me fucking crazy.”
I gripped her hip with one hand, used the other to guide myself to her entrance, and pushed in slowly.
She exhaled a long, broken sound. Her palms pressed harder against the rock.
I stilled, buried to the hilt, my forehead dropping to the back of her neck.
She was impossibly warm around me, no barrier between us, nothing. Just her.
“Okay?” My voice came out wrecked.
“Don’t stop.” She rolled her hips, urging me to move.
I pulled back and thrust forward. Her breathing came in sharp little gasps each time I filled her. I kept one hand braced on the wall and slid the other around her hip and down her stomach, finding the spot that made her legs buckle.
“There,” she whimpered. “Right there, don’t you dare stop.”
I circled my fingers against her while I moved, feeling her tighten around me every time I pressed deeper.
Her head dropped back against my chest. Her hands moved to the rock, one covering mine.
I turned my face into her hair and groaned low, trying to hold my pace steady when everything in me wanted to lose control entirely.
“You feel so good,” I said against her temple. “God, Summer, you have no idea.”
She turned her head just enough to find my jaw with her lips. Her fingers laced over mine on the wall. I picked up the pace, slapping my pelvis against her ass. She arched her back, changing the angle and taking me deeper. I felt the tingling at the base of my spine.
Her breathing went ragged and uneven. Her whole body was trembling, her thighs pressing back against mine with every stroke.
“I’m close,” she gasped. “I’m so close, Colt.”
I pressed harder against her with my fingers, kept my hips driving forward, my mouth at her ear. “Let go,” I said. “I’ve got you.”
She came apart against my hand with a cry that she muffled against her own arm, her body clenching hard around me in waves. I followed her over the edge with my face buried in her neck, her name the only word I had left.
My body sagged against hers, pushing her against the stone. I told myself to be careful but she’d squeezed me so hard, I had no strength in my legs. It took several seconds for me to regain my strength.
I stepped back and turned her to face me. My hand slid over her breasts, cringing when I saw the redness. “Sorry.”
She smiled. “I’m fine. They’re fine.”
“I didn’t mean to get rough.”
She pressed her palm flat against my chest. Right over my heart. My hand closed over hers. I felt like I was losing something. Her. My home. The future I had always imagined I would have in Texas. Every heartbeat signaled something else slipping away.
“You okay?” she asked softly.
I forced myself to shake off the sadness. “I am. You’re the one that just got smashed into a rock.”
She laughed. “I’ve had waves slam me harder against rocks and the sand. I’ll survive.”
I kissed her, trying to tell myself it wasn’t a goodbye but I felt it in my soul. I was going to lose and I was going to lose big.