21. Evan
Mother Nature was unpredictable,especially in the mountains, but I wanted to set Frannie’s mind at ease. “It’s just a bad storm. It’ll pass, then the sun will come out and it will be like nothing even happened.”
She burrowed deeper into my side. “I hope so.”
“You’re not really scared, are you?” I’d rather face a thunderstorm in Beaver Bluff than some of the shit I’d dealt with in Afghanistan. At least with Mother Nature, you typically had a little warning before things got real.
“I’m glad you’re here.” She shifted her head to look up at me.
“I never told you how amazing you look this afternoon.” When I’d seen her coming up the sidewalk at the front of the chapel, she’d stolen my breath away. The dress accentuated her waist and dipped low enough in front to give a guy blue balls for days.
“Thanks. You looked pretty hot in your tux. I bet you could have had your pick of bridesmaids.”
I should have told her right then and there that I only had eyes for her. With Andrew out of the way and my leg feeling better than ever, there wasn’t a good reason to not come clean. Well, except the risk of ruining our friendship for good.
“I’d rather spend the evening with you.” It was an honest answer, and one that skated uncomfortably close to revealing how I really felt about her.
“Careful, Evan. People might start getting to know the real you.”
“The real me, huh? Who’s that?”
She propped herself up on an elbow, so she was looking down on me. “The real you is a man who would do anything for a friend, including letting her move in with her obnoxious dog. Oh, and let her date someone from your family’s biggest rival right under your nose.”
“I don’t have anything against Andrew Stewart. He seems like a nice guy.” And even nicer now that he wasn’t a threat.
“He is.” Frannie rolled onto her back again. “I think I got so caught up in making my dad happy that I lost sight of what I wanted.”
“What do you want?” I held my breath while I waited for her to answer.
“Well, I don’t want to die without ever having good sex, that’s for sure.” She laughed and rolled her eyes. “Sorry, I don’t know where that came from.”
Heat sparked low in my belly and slowly made its way up my chest. I’d be a fool to proposition her, but in that moment, the only thing I could think about was how her face might look when I became the first man to ever make her come.
“You know, Frannie, I’d be willing to help you out with that if you want.”
Her brows knit together, and her pretty pink lips parted. I was so tempted to lean forward—just a few inches separated my mouth from hers—and show her how I felt about her with a kiss.
“Are you joking?” Her pulse jumped. I could see the beating of her heart right below her jaw.
I nudged my nose into her hair and caught her earlobe between my teeth. “No.”
“What are you saying?” The way her body responded betrayed her. No matter what she said, I could tell I’d gotten under her skin.
I skimmed a finger down her neck and over her arm. “I’m saying if you don’t want to die without ever having good sex, I’d be willing to go there with you.”
“But we’re friends.” She reached up and ran her hand over the base of my neck.
“Best friends. That’s why you should let it be me.”
Her back arched as I whispered into her ear. We were vibing, even if she hadn’t realized it yet. “Won’t that change things between us?”
I sure as hell hoped so, but I didn’t want to say that and scare her away. “You’ll always be my best friend, Frannie. Nothing’s going to ever change that.”
Lightning flashed through the sky overhead, immediately followed by a boom of thunder that echoed through the clouds. The car shook.
Her eyes squeezed shut. “I can’t believe I’m even considering it.”
“Relax. I can stop anytime. All you need to do is say the word.” I wanted to do this for her, wanted to give her something she’d never experienced with anyone else.
“What word?” One eyelid popped open. “Is there a certain word I should use if I want you to stop?”
She was so high-strung, so nervous about doing something wrong. “You could just say ‘stop’ or we can come up with a safe word if you prefer.”
“But what if I say something like don’t stop? Does that ‘stop’ count?” She bit down on her lower lip, pulling it into her mouth. “Sorry, I’m being ridiculous, I know. I’m just nervous.”
She had no idea how much I wanted this, or how long I’d been biding my time, waiting for the chance to show her how I felt about her. “It’s okay. Pick another word, any word.”
“How about walrus?”
“Okay, walrus.” I grazed her cheek with the back of my hand. “You’re in control, Frannigan. You can walrus me anytime.”
“Okay.” She nodded, her eyes closed, and clenched her fists at her side.
I started by kissing her neck. It drove me crazy when she wore her hair up. One hand slid into her hair, and I braced myself up on my elbow. Her pulse fluttered underneath my lips. The smell of her perfume, something musky and warm, had my cock ready for action. Kissing her baby-soft skin was better than I’d imagined. My tongue flicked out to taste her. The little moan coming from the back of her throat was more potent than any aphrodisiac.
As I took my time trailing lazy kisses up and down her neck, over her collarbone, and behind her ears, her hands relaxed. She slid a palm over my back. Even through the starched shirt and thin white tee I’d worn underneath, I could feel her touch. Made me ache to know how it would feel to have her hands on my bare skin.
I pulled back to gauge her reaction. Her chest rose and fell as she drew in one deep breath after the other. “Is this okay so far?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Are you sure?” I knew she was into it. The way her body responded to mine was proof of that.
Her eyes opened, and she stared up at me, the huge crease in her forehead a sure sign she was overthinking something.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s silly.” She shook her head and closed her eyes again. “You can keep going.”
I pried her eyelid open with my fingers. “If this isn’t working for you, we can stop.” It would be a significant blow to my ego, but our friendship came first. I couldn’t afford to lose her, even if she never looked at me the way I wanted her to.
“I don’t want you to stop. I’m just having a hard time accepting that you’re such a good kisser.” Her lower lip stuck out in a pout.
I leaned forward and captured it with my teeth. Her hands went to my cheeks, and she pressed her lips into mine. She was kissing me back. Everything else faded into the background. All that mattered was the softness of her lips, and the connection between us. Her finger traced the outline of my jaw. Shivers exploded down my spine. Whatever had been holding her back had disappeared, and she pushed her hips up to make contact.
I wanted more, maybe more than she was willing to give, but I’d never get enough when it came to Frannie. Over the years she’d become everything to me, and even though I hadn’t had the guts to tell her, I could show her how much I loved her with every touch of my lips against her skin, every beat of my heart in rhythm with hers.
Her fingers tugged at the bow tie around my neck. I had no idea how to get it undone, but it was getting hard to breathe and I wanted it off as quickly as possible. Frannie must have felt the same because she gave up on the tie and tugged my shirt out of my pants. Her palms made their way under my tee, and I almost came the moment I felt her hands glide over my bare skin.
“Your abs should be illegal,” she mumbled into my mouth.
I would have laughed, but her tongue was sliding against mine. At some point in the past minute or two, I’d lost control of the situation. Frannie was in charge now, and I was helpless against her.
The skirt of her dress still bunched up at her waist from when she’d climbed over the seat. I searched for a zipper along her back, anything that would help me free her from it. My fingers itched to glide over her skin, but there was too much fucking fabric between us.
“It’s on the side.” She rolled toward me and pushed my palm toward her armpit. I felt the metal track and followed it until I trapped the small zipper pull between my fingers. It moved down an inch, then stopped. I wasn’t about to get cockblocked by a dress, so I pulled harder. Nothing happened.
“It’s got to go over your head.” I slid down her body and grabbed fistfuls of the bunched-up fabric.
Frannie tried to help. “I think it’s stuck.”
It wouldn’t go up and wouldn’t come back down. The way I saw it, there was only one option. “How much do you like this dress?”
“Why? What are you going to do?” Her voice was muffled by all the material covering her face. That wasn’t going to do at all because I had big plans for her mouth—plans that required full access to her lips.
“Just answer the question, Frannie. Can you live without it?”
She was quiet for a long beat as she tried to pull the dress over her head. “Just get it off me, please?”
With permission granted, I pulled the side seam apart, starting where the zipper had gone off the track. The fabric ripped—the sound so loud in the confines of the hatchback that it even drowned out the thunderstorm raging above.
I tossed the remains of the dress in the front seat and leaned back to get a look at what I’d unveiled. In a strapless flesh-colored lacy bra and a pair of matching panties, Frannie was an absolute bombshell.
“If I’d known what you had on underneath, I would have taken that dress off you a hell of a lot sooner,” I said.
“It’s not fair. You have more clothes on than me.” She looked up at me, her soft lashes fluttering against her cheeks, suddenly a little shy.
“Let me even it up then.” I shed the shirt and kicked my pants off, losing them somewhere down by my feet. Before I had a chance to tug the undershirt over my head, Frannie had slid it halfway up my chest.
Then she burrowed into me, skin to skin. Being with her like this felt so right. My cock thought so too. A rock-solid ridge tented the front of my boxer briefs. I was ready to show her how good things could be, ready to take things between us to a whole new level.
“Are you sure you don’t want to walrus me?” I whispered as I skimmed my fingers over her shoulder. I’d been dreaming about having her like this since my older brothers enlightened me about what the word “fuck” meant. Only with Frannie, I always thought of what I wanted to do with her as making love. Yeah, I wanted to fuck her too. I wasn’t a choirboy, but I knew it would be so much more special than just getting off with a girl. She was the one.
“I’m sure.” Her eyes locked with mine, and I could see the love I felt in my heart reflected right back at me.
“Good. Because once we get going, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop.” I leaned forward and kissed her. As our tongues tangled, I skimmed my hand down her side and around her belly to stop at the waistband of her panties.
Her breath caught. For half a heartbeat, I thought she might pull back. I wouldn’t have been able to take that. Stopping now would break my heart. Then she put her hand over mine and, with our fingers intertwined, she slid them into her panties.