Chapter 24
JEREMIAH
Lennon always had a retort for everything, so seeing her shocked speechless was pretty damn funny. Gaping at me, she grasped the top of the stall door for support, like my virginity had knocked her physically off balance as well as emotionally.
“No,” she said finally. “You’re not.”
I smirked. “I think that’s the kind of thing a man knows about himself, honey.”
“It’s not possible.”
“With God, all things are possible,” I intoned in my best preacher voice and then bust out a chuckle at my own joke.
I was feeling good and relaxed. Looser than I had in years.
Warm and gooey like the inside of a chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven.
I felt so good I didn’t even care that I was using words like gooey.
But she looked properly horrified. If she had pearls, she’d be clutching them. “Oh, hell. Are you waiting for marriage? Because sex is a sin?”
“It’s not that. Until today, I wouldn’t have said I was waiting for anything.
Sex just hadn’t happened, that was all. The timing never felt right.
The woman never felt right. Now I think that’s what I was waiting for the whole time.
I was waiting for it to feel right.” I tucked her hair behind her ear, letting the silky strands slip from my fingers. “I think I was waiting for you.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Oh, no.”
I laughed.
“It’s not funny!” She smacked my arm. “What do you mean, it never felt right? You’re a man. Sex always feels right when you’re a man. How could it have never happened? Look at you! You’re beautiful. You’re kind. You’re the kind of man women wish for when they toss pennies into wells.”
“Lennon, I was beaten so badly for touching myself I still have scars. I was banished from my family for sinning. That kind of thing will make even the horniest teen boy think twice before he tries to get into a girl’s pants.
My foster parents sent me to therapy, and that helped.
But I can’t be casual about being inside another person. I don’t take it lightly.”
“Jeremiah.” She rolled her lips together, brows drawn together, her dark eyes troubled. “I like you so much. But if you’re waiting for sex to be special, you need to keep waiting. You’ve got the wrong girl.”
“Do I?” Wanting my hands on her, I slipped my arms around her waist and pulled her closer. “Sure doesn’t feel that way to me.” I nuzzled her throat and felt her pulse jump like a jackrabbit. My lips curved. “You’re lying to yourself, honey.”
She arched away from me with a scowl. “I don’t do that. You’re the one who seems to have forgotten that I’m leaving in a month.”
“So stay. Stay for the whole summer.” Stay forever. But I knew better than to say that out loud. She was as skittish as a newborn colt. “I want you to stay, but if all I get with you is another month, then I intend to make the most of it.”
“The orgasm has clouded your brain. Most men think they’re in love with me after a blowjob. It will pass.”
I chuckled against her throat and then nipped her skin, making her suck in a sharp breath of air.
“Who said anything about love? I want to fuck you, Lennon. This doesn’t have to be forever to be right, and it doesn’t have to be love to feel special.
You make it special. It’s right because it’s you and me together.
I wish I could make sense of it, but I can’t.
All I know is that seeing you every morning is the best part of my day.
You make me laugh. You play in rainstorms. You drive me crazy and make me ache.
” I cupped her ass and pulled her fully against me, letting her feel how hard she was making me again.
“It’s chemistry, honey. There’s no use denying it. ”
She whimpered and dug her nails into my biceps. I spun us slowly in a half-circle, as if we were dancing. It was a pleasure to give her words back to her. “Back against the wall, Lennon. You’re going to need it.”
Her eyes went round with horror. “I am not going to take your virginity in a horse stall. Absolutely not.”
“No,” I agreed. “I don’t have a condom, anyway.
But you seem to have doubts about what we have together.
I’m thinking an orgasm will get us on the same page.
Spread your legs, honey.” I wedged my thigh between hers and nudged her boot with mine.
“I think this is what kids these days call heavy petting.”
“The kids absolutely do not call it that.” She narrowed her eyes even as she widened her stance. “Have you ever done this before?”
I swallowed my chuckle. “No, but I’ve always been a quick learner.”
She heaved a beleaguered sigh. “Wonderful. I’ll take one for the sisterhood and teach you how to find a woman’s clit. I guess I have nothing better to do today, anyway.”
I cupped her jaw, tilting her chin up so she had to look at me. “I don’t need to find every woman’s clit. Just yours.”
“I—”
I kissed her because I would die if I didn’t.
I kissed her until her mouth was pliant under mine and her body melted against me.
With that smart mouth busy, I slid my hand under her skirt and up the silky skin of her thigh until it met the lace hem of her underwear.
My thumb ghosted over the gusset and found the cotton warm and damp.
We both stopped breathing.
I lifted my head and looked at her. “Now, why were you kicking up a fuss when your body is begging for me?”
“Don’t take it personally. It’s been a while. Some of us aren’t cut out for thirty-eight years of celibacy.”
“You’re awfully sassy for a woman standing in a horse stall with soaked panties.” I rubbed my thumb back and forth over her mound and then slipped it under the hem. Wet. Thirst coursed through my veins. “Fuck, honey,” I groaned. Her hands spasmed on my shoulders.
Eagerness made my hand tremble. I twisted my wrist for better access and slid my middle finger between her folds. The tip of my finger brushed her entrance. “Tell me I can touch you,” I begged.
“Yes,” she breathed.
I pushed one finger inside. Fuck, I had never felt anything like this. Soft, wet heat. The clench of her pussy around my finger. My dick twitched with jealousy.
She started to moan and then bit it back, her teeth strumming her bottom lip.
Goddammit, I would make her pay for that.
Someday she would scream my name and beg for me.
I just needed to learn how to make that happen.
I pumped my finger in and out and then dragged it upward, spreading moisture everywhere. Her breath hitched. There.
“Right here?” I tapped gently. She pressed her lips together, and I grinned. Tight little circles with the pad of my finger made her hips tilt. “You like that?”
“My last boyfriend left cash on my nightstand.” She said it like a challenge. Like she thought that would deter me. It didn’t. Not even a little bit.
“My wallet is in my back pocket. Take what you want.” I curled my finger inside her and this time she couldn’t hold back her moan. I laughed darkly. “You don’t want my money, Lennon. You want me. And that terrifies you.”
She growled. “It should terrify you.”
“It doesn’t.” I pressed the heel of my palm against her clit as my finger pumped in and out of her. She arched into me. “Stop fighting me and show me how to make you come.”
She huffed, and for a moment I thought she would say something else snarky. But then she relented. “Like that, but…more.”
I wasn’t sure a second finger could fit, but it did. My thrusts turned short and deep as I focused more attention on my thumb circling her clit. I was rewarded with her pussy walls squeezing around me. Her breathing turned erratic.
“Like this?” I rasped.
She didn’t answer—not in words. She cried out as she shattered around me, slamming her back against the wall and pushing her pussy into my hand, her hands digging into my shoulders for balance.
I held her tightly as the last quakes subsided, then gently eased my fingers from her body. She had soaked my hand with her orgasm. I lifted my fingers to my lips, inhaled the scent of her arousal, and sucked them clean. The taste of her only made me thirstier.
I kissed her, knowing she could taste herself on my tongue. “Are we on the same page now?”
She made an incoherent sound that I took for agreement.
“Good.” I tugged her against me and kissed her again. “Let’s go get cleaned up before dinner.”
I stooped to get the saddle pad. Her bag was next to it, the corner of a postcard sticking out. My heart jumped into my throat as I slid it out and straightened. I flipped it over and found the telltale purple message on the back. Fuck.
“Lennon.” I struggled to keep the anger out of my voice. “What the hell is this?”