Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Mia
Idon’t even realize I’m shaking until we get back to Briggs’s cabin.
Briggs hasn’t said a word since we left the bar and he put me in the truck. He didn’t even speak as he reached over me and pulled my seat belt around me as if I were a child who couldn’t do it myself.
He puts the truck in park and I open my mouth, but before I can say anything, he’s pulled the keys from the ignition and is gone. The door slams behind him.
I hardly have time to exhale before the passenger door is yanked open. Briggs reaches over me again and releases my seat belt.
“I can do—oh!”
My words are hardly out as he scoops me up as if I weigh nothing and once more tosses me over his shoulder like a sack of flour.
“What are you doing? Put me—”
He slaps his palm down on the back of my bare thighs so sharply it startles the words right out of me.
My thighs sting, but there’s something else. A pulsing in my pussy that’s pressed up against his hard muscles.
I’m turned on.
Of course I am. He saved me. Again.
And he’s the sexiest man I’ve ever seen in real life. And now…well, he’s holding me so tightly, I can hardly move. Still, I try to squirm a little to rub against him to relieve the pressure that’s building between my legs.
“Stop.” He barks the command and presses down on my ass to still me.
Once we’re inside, he flips me over and drops me on the huge, overstuffed couch. I land in a soft plop, my legs spread a little with my skirt rucked up from being over his shoulder. My breath is coming in fast pants as I stare up at him.
“What the fuck were you thinking?”
Briggs towers over me. His pupils are so dilated, his blue eyes are almost black; his hair is mussed and there’s blood on his shirt.
My gaze drops to his hands. “You’re hurt.”
He doesn’t even glance at them and ignores the question.
“You could have been…” A low rumble comes from his throat.
He drops his gaze for a moment and then once more pins me with those eyes.
“What the fuck were you thinking, going in there, Mia? You have no idea what those men are capable of. Do you know what could have happened if I hadn’t shown up? What would have happened?”
I did know. The thought makes my stomach churn. It’s true, I want my first kiss. I want to lose my virginity. Desperately. But not like that. Not with men like that.
My heart flutters in my chest.
With a man like Briggs.
He’s staring at me. Waiting for an answer. So I swallow and give him one. “You wouldn’t kiss me.”
He throws his head back and roars. Like, actually roars. When he looks at me again, his nostrils are flared. “That’s what this is about?” He speaks through gritted teeth. “You did all of that for a kiss.”
I actually did all that for a lot more than a kiss, but it doesn’t feel like the right time to tell him that, so I nod.
He mumbles a string of curses, reaches down, and grabs me around the wrist before hauling me up to my feet. He’s so much taller than me, he looms over me, and in his heightened state, he seems even bigger. But I’m not thinking of any of that a second later when Briggs crushes his lips to mine.
Briggs
I kiss her hard.
Harder than I probably should for her first kiss, but dammit, the girl wants to be kissed. So I’ll fucking kiss her.
A surprised gasp slips from her mouth, but I don’t pull back.
Her lips are soft and oh-so-sweet beneath mine.
I can taste the beer she drank, but also the cherry of her lip gloss.
Delicious.
My mouth claims hers ruthlessly as my tongue pushes into her mouth, searching and exploring every bit of her.
I feel the moment she relaxes, and then she’s kissing me back.
A growl rumbles from my chest.
I pull her closer to me so there’s no way she can’t feel my massive, raging hard-on pressed into her soft belly while I pop her kissing cherry.
I tangle my fingers, raw from the fight, in the strands of her hair that have come loose from the knot at the top of her head, and tug her even closer while my lips continue their assault on hers.
There’s nothing sweet and tender about this first kiss.
It’s rough. It’s hungry. And primal.
And the single hottest kiss I’ve ever had in my life.
Before I take it too far, I force myself to tear my mouth from hers and at the same time, release my grip on her. I step back so quickly, Mia loses her balance and falls back onto the couch.
She looks up at me through her long lashes with wide eyes. Her lips are swollen, and my mind flashes immediately to what they’d look like wrapped around my thick cock.
“There,” I manage to say. “You’ve been kissed.”
I turn away and go into the adjoining kitchen because there’s no way I’ll be able to control myself if I stay in her presence a second longer.
Every man has his limits. I’ve hit mine.
I down a glass of water, and it’s only when I’m holding it under the tap for a refill that I notice my bloody knuckles.
“Shit.” I put the glass down and move to get some paper towels, but Mia’s sweet voice stops me.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’m fine.”
“No.” She stands next to me and takes my hand in hers. It’s a massive mitt in her tiny doll-like hands. She holds it so delicately and tenderly, I can’t bring myself to pull away. “You have cuts. They’ll get infected if we don’t treat them.”
“Treat them?” I shake my head. “No. They’re fine. I’ve been in plenty of—”
“I’m a nurse, Briggs. Let me clean your wounds.” She looks straight into my eyes with so much determination, there’s no way I can say no. Especially when she adds, “Besides. This is all my fault.”
I can’t argue with that, so I sit at the kitchen table and watch her move around the kitchen with quick efficiency. She finds a first-aid kit I’ve never used under the sink, fills a bowl with warm water, and grabs a clean dish rag before taking the seat across from me.
It’s the first time since I’ve met Mia—was it really only just this afternoon?—that I’ve seen her composed and sure of herself. Gone is the shy and uncertain girl from earlier, replaced by a confident young woman who is very much in control of the situation at hand.
“Let me…” She gestures to my right hand. It took the brunt of most of the punches, and the knuckles are bruised and cut. Mia gently washes each finger before smoothing some kind of ointment over each cut and finally finishes by wrapping a thin layer of gauze around my hand.
“You’re really good at this.” I can’t take my eyes off her as she works. “A professional.”
“Well,” she laughs a little and looks up from her task to meet my gaze, “that’s exactly what I am. I graduated from nursing school a few months ago.”
“That’s right.” The memory of Jamie proudly telling me of his little sister’s achievements flashes through my brain. “Your brother is really proud of you.”
Her smile dips a little, but she doesn’t say anything.
“Is that a bad thing, Mia?”
“No,” she says reluctantly. “I guess it’s not. I’m lucky to have him. He’s sacrificed so much for me. Too much.”
“I don’t think he’d see it that way.”
I knew he didn’t see it that way. Providing for his little sister was a point of pride for my best friend.
“Well, I wish he wouldn’t worry about me so much.”
She moves the cloth over the top of my left hand. There’s nothing about the action that should be seductive, but my perpetually hard cock twitches at the touch.
“I just hate to let him down.”
“I don’t think you could,” I tell her. “I know how proud he is that you were accepted into medical school, too. That doesn’t sound like you’ve let him down at all.”
She blows out a breath and pats my hand with a clean towel. “Except…I don’t want to go to medical school.”
Mia
It’s the first time I’ve said those words out loud.
But now that I have, they’re not so scary, so I say them again.
“I don’t want to go to med school. I never have.
I just applied because…well, because I knew Jamie wanted me to.
” I don’t look at Briggs as I tell him the truth.
“I’ve been working so hard in school, it takes up all my time.
Like, all of my time. I don’t want to do it anymore.
Besides, I like being a nurse. I just want to help people, and I can do that without being a doctor. ”
“Yes,” he says. “You can.”
I look at Briggs then. His eyes are blue again, the emotion from earlier drained away. He’s softer now, too. But he’s still watching me in that intense way that makes me think he can see right through me. I swallow hard and look away, focusing again on my task.
“You should tell him,” he says after a moment. “Tell him what you want. He only wants you to be happy, Mia.”
I know that’s true. Jamie loves me. But it’s not that simple.
“He’d be so upset if he knew how much I hated school,” I say.
“He worked so hard to pay my tuition so I wouldn’t need to take student loans.
And I’m grateful because I wouldn’t be a nurse now if he hadn’t.
But if he knew that I had no friends, and no social life at all because all I did was study all the time, he’d only be upset that I missed out on the true college experience.
I mean, there’s a reason I’d never been kissed. ”
My hand flew to my lips. I didn’t mean to mention the kiss Briggs had given me. It was not at all what I expected. It had been so much more. I shifted in my seat, a reminder that the kiss had made my panties very wet.
“But now you have,” he says, his voice deep again. “Been kissed, I mean.”
I nod a little and finish wrapping his other hand. I’m about to pull away when he stops me by putting his large hands over mine. “What else didn’t you have time for in college, Mia?”
I know what he’s asking and he must know the answer. “Well, I mean…I’d never kissed a boy, so…I haven’t done…well…anything.”
“Say it, Mia.”
Hot heat rushes between my legs and dampens my panties further.
“I want to hear you tell me that you’ve never felt a man’s touch on your pussy.”
I swallow hard.
“Say it,” he commands.
“I’ve never felt a man’s touch on my pussy.”
His eyes darken.
“Tell me you’ve never felt a hard cock inside your sweet little cunt.”
I gasp; my breath catches at his dirty words.
“I’ve…I’ve never…”
“Say it, Mia. I want to hear you tell me.”
I nod. The way my pussy is throbbing right now, I’ll do anything he tells me. “I’ve never felt a hard cock inside my sweet little…”
He tilts his head and raises his eyebrows.
“Cunt,” I finish.
He rewards me with a sly smile. My pulse is racing, and I can’t seem to catch my breath.
Especially when he asks, “And is that why you really came here today, Mia? Are you looking to get fucked?”