66. Blake
BLAKE
My parents clung like limpets until I felt nearly suffocated. I guess it needed to happen. I’d never been so honest with them before, and I felt the toll like a heavy weight. But they do love me, and maybe deep down I’ve always known it.
I still can’t help feeling like I’ll be battling for their approval, though.
But do I really need it?
It’d be nice to have it, but I can’t spend my life trying to please them.
It’s time to look after myself, and they’ll just have to love me through it.
“You good?” Grady glances at me.
I tuck a wayward curl behind my ear and smile at him. The sun is shining, we’re driving out of town in his Jeep, music is pumping, I’m walking boot-free and feeling better than I ever have. I am so much better than good.
It’s been a week since my parents’ visit, and with each passing day, I’ve felt stronger and more determined to prove that I can make the biggest success of my life.
I have a job interview lined up tomorrow at a place called Ponderosa Villa.
It’s for a cleaning position, which I’m a little nervous about since I grew up with housekeepers doing everything for me, but Grady ran me through how to clean a bathroom yesterday afternoon, and it’s not that hard.
Wily lined up the interview for me, and I’ll be meeting some woman named Rachel, who is apparently a sweetheart.
If I can get this gig, I’ll be working five days a week, and although it’s not a high-paying job, it’s not about the money.
I just need something to get me into healthy habits and keep me busy until the new school year begins.
I’m worried if I sit around Football Frat twiddling my thumbs, I’ll get antsy and want to do something stupid again.
Hopefully this job will work out just fine. Everyone’s agreed to let me stay in Football Frat, and although I’ve still got that spare room, I’ve been spending every night by Grady’s side.
I love how warm he is.
And his bed is so much more comfortable than mine.
He spoons me as we drift off to sleep, and it’s seriously the best.
Turning off the road, Grady heads down a winding path that will take us to some peaceful spot he discovered in his first year at Nolan.
“Your ankle should be up for this,” he’s saying. “The ground is flat, and we’ll take it slow and easy. It’s just a short hike.”
“I’m good. ”
“But you’ll let me know if it gets too sore, right? You’re not allowed to just grit your teeth through it because you think I’ll be disappointed.”
I wrinkle my nose at him, but he fires me a pointed look before facing the road again.
“Promise me, Bee.”
“I promise,” I assure him, then say it one more time for good measure. “I promise to be honest. Always.”
His lips twitch, then curl into that grin I love so much.
This boy.
Raising the new camera Wily bought me the day I got my moon boot off (yes, he’s the sweetest brother ever!), I snap a few pics of my man, then check the display screen with a grin.
My heart trills, my insides sizzling as I think about all the things I want to do with him. Now that my ankle’s getting better and I can move around more freely…
“Okay, here we go.” He pulls his Jeep to a stop, and we climb out.
Hitching the small bag onto my shoulders, I carefully settle the camera across myself before following Grady onto the track leading west. We weave through the trees, leaving the trail about five minutes later and heading into denser woods.
“You know where you’re going, right?” I duck under a branch, watching my footing as I follow his line.
“Yeah, baby. Trust me.” He slows his pace, and I catch up easily, tuning into the sounds of the forest and smiling at how full my soul feels every time I dive into nature.
I can’t believe I’m only just discovering it all now.
Pausing on the trail, I lift my camera and line up a shot, then take a few more before framing a gorgeous one of my man hiking away from me.
A shaft of light illuminates the leaves around him, and when I pull the camera back to study the shot I just got, I feel that sense of gleeful pride skipping through me.
“Damn, that’s a good photo right there,” I whisper with a grin.
“Come on, Bee,” Grady calls to me, and I hurry after him, careful where I step.
He waits for me with a patient smile, and as soon as I reach him, I start gushing about the photo I just captured and how I’m going to frame it for his bedroom wall.
“Nice, baby.” He reaches back for my hand and I take it, smiling as the sound of flowing water starts to register.
“Oooo.” I grin, and he glances back with a smile.
“You’re gonna love it.”
And he’s right.
As we clear the trees, a perfect little oasis opens up before us. Like a hidden treasure, this small waterfall dropping into a swimming hole is the most idyllic scene.
“I can’t believe there’s not a marked trail leading to this spot.”
“I know, right?” Grady slips the bag off his shoulders. “But I don’t want to tell anyone, because I kind of like how secret this place is.”
“Yeah, for sure.” I smile at him, this blooming sensation growing in my chest as I slip off my bag and camera, carefully setting them down before stepping up against him. “Thank you for bringing me here.” I swing my arms around his neck, and he lifts me off my feet.
My legs wrap around him as he grins at me, then beckons me forward with a soft “C’mere.”
I go without hesitation, crushing my lips to his, my insides buzzing with anticipation. I instinctively know what’s coming next, and I am so here for it.
As his hand splays across my back, sliding up to my neck, I slip my tongue into his mouth and sink into a mind-bending kiss. It’s all I can do not to tear his clothes off. The energy between us is potent and addictive.
It’s… cosmic.
Is that what he meant when he was trying to tell me he loved me?
I’ve been meaning to ask him, and why not throw it out there now?
“What…” I suck his tongue between my lips. “Did you mean…” I nibble down the edge of his jaw. “By the whole…” Pressing my lips to his neck, I inhale his luscious scent before finally finishing. “Cosmic thing?”
“Mmmm.” He sighs before letting out a low chuckle. Squeezing me against him, I grin at the feel of his shaft growing harder by the second. “It’s just something Teah said.”
My insides coil.
“She was talking about her and Mac.”
My insides relax.
“About how they had this cosmic connection. It was overpowering and unstoppable. And it made me think of you.”
I grind against him, peppering kisses back up to his lips.
“We’re…” He kisses me deep before murmuring against my lips, “We’re like that, baby. From the second I saw you in that bathroom, I couldn’t stop thinking about…” His tongue dips into my mouth again. “You. I wanted you so bad. ”
“I wanted you too,” I pant against his neck, my body starting to catch fire.
“And it was like this powerful force I couldn’t resist.” He walks us around a rock, to a patch of grass bathed in sunlight.
Placing me on my feet, he keeps kissing and nipping my skin, working his way from my chin to my throat while his fingers wriggle beneath my shirt.
I moan in approval, the pads of his fingers gliding across my skin. Promising, promising, promising…
“Then we got to the forest and had that perfect time together, and I couldn’t fight it anymore.” His breath fans my neck. “I had to make you mine, Bee. Mine for good.”
His hand cups my right breast and I tip my head back, the sun baking my skin as I smile up at the blue sky. “I’m yours. I was yours from the second you looked at me with those hungry eyes.”
He laughs against my skin. “You make me so hungry, baby.” With a playful growl, he hikes my shirt up even higher.
Lifting my arms, I help him out, loving the feel of the breeze kissing my skin as he drops my clothing to the ground.
He undresses me slowly, peppering my skin with nips and licks until my knees buckle. He catches me easily, lowering me to the grass and taking his sweet time with my body.
As he licks a path to my eager center, I tell him how hot he is and how I fell in love with him step by easy step. All the things he did for me, the ways he saved me, come tumbling out of my mouth until I can’t breathe .
His tongue on my clit is knocking out my senses until the only one that’s still functioning is pleasure.
It’s pulsing a thick, strong beat as I scrape my fingers across his shoulders and let out a lusty cry. The air around me swallows the sound while the waterfall continues to tumble behind us.
When Grady parts my folds and licks a path back up to my clit, my entire body starts to vibrate, the promise of an orgasm building until my heart is knocked out of orbit.
“I’m coming,” I gasp, digging my fingers into his short hair as shots of liquid fire dart through my body.
With a groan, I tip my head back as Grady’s magic tongue destroys me.
I stop breathing, my entire body going rigid before this orgasmic fire scorching my senses culminates into an explosive energy.
It ripples through me, a cry punching out of my throat as my back arches and I’m lost to this mind-blowing sensation.
“That’s it, baby. Enjoy the ride,” Grady murmurs against my thigh, cupping my pussy as I writhe beneath him.
My heart is thundering as he crawls up my body.
The sound of his fly unzipping is the sweetest melody I’ve ever heard.
“Yes,” I groan, frantically pushing his pants down.
Wrapping my fingers around his cock, I stroke it while he kicks and slides his pants down to his ankles.
He’s still wearing his boots, too distracted by undressing me to bother with them at the time, and like hell I’m letting him bother with them now.
I need him inside me, and the second he’s settled back over me, I line him up and let him plunge .
It feels fucking amazing, his long cock piercing me with a powerful thrust that makes us groan in unison.
“You’re so hot, baby.” He kisses my shoulder. “I love you wrapped around me.”
“I love you inside me,” I whisper, panting as I lightly scrape my teeth across his shoulder, then have to tip my head back as another cry punches out of me.
He feels so good, I can’t even think.
I want to drown in this ecstasy.
I want time to stand still so that all that can ever exist is us and this coupling. Us in this beautiful oasis. Us connecting in the way only we can.
“Bee,” Grady groans against my skin, thrusting deep and hard, his pace increasing as that rocket fires through him.
I can feel it build, expanding, gearing up to explode, and I encourage him with a kiss to his neck, scraping my nails lightly down his back before squeezing his ass.
Yes, yes, yes! my insides chant, my heart accelerating, and he fills me all the way to my soul.
He grunts, pressing his mouth against my cheek before brushing the tip of his nose across my skin.
“I love you,” he mumbles. “I love you so fucking much.”
I smile up at the sky, turning my head to meet his kiss. Our lips crush together, and he stills on top of me, his body vibrating as he drinks me in… then can’t hold it anymore.
Ripping his mouth off mine, he rises on his hands, plowing into me over and over until I can’t contain my cries .
The lusty sounds punching out of me probably scare the wildlife away, but I can’t care right now.
There is only this.
Only us.
Yes!
He plunges deep, jerking back and then plunging again, the energy sizzling through his body reaching right inside me.
I feel that moment when he finally lets go. His release spurts into me, his body frenetic over mine until that high starts to fade and he sinks over me, lightly dropping kisses from my forehead down to my lips.
I giggle and he covers my smile with his mouth, his tongue gliding over mine with a tenderness that makes my chest swell all over again.
When he pulls back to gaze down at me, I show him everything. Every ounce of the love I have for him pours out of my eyes.
And he sees it.
He matches it.
With twitching lips, he leans down to brush his lips against mine, softly whispering, “Cosmic energy.”
“The bee and the bear.” I giggle before disappearing into his kiss.