Chapter 22
Beau
I would be lying if I said Noelle’s story hadn’t freaked me out a little…but there was no better way to forget than losing myself in the woman I loved.
And God, I did love her. More than I could say out loud. More than I thought I was allowed to, this fast.
She was already on her knees in the tent, yanking her hoodie over her head, cheeks flushed and eyes still a little wild.
I dropped beside her, cupping her jaw, kissing her like I needed her to survive the night.
Maybe I did. Maybe I was scared too—but I’d never admit that out loud.
Not when I could bury that fear between her thighs instead.
“You scared?” I asked, low and ragged against her mouth.
She nodded once, then shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Good,” I murmured, easing her back against the sleeping bag. “Means you’re gonna feel everything I do to you that much more.”
She shivered. I watched it roll through her like a tide. My hands skimmed up her ribs, dragging her shirt with them. Her bra was soft and gray, nothing fancy, but it made my blood go hot in my veins just the same. I kissed the top of her breast, then unhooked her bra with a flick of my fingers.
“I get it, you know,” I murmured.
“Get what?” she asked, voice hoarse.
“The idea of that ghost cat followin’ you,” I whispered. “I mean…I’d follow you anywhere, Noelle Kinney.”
She made a broken noise, hips twitching beneath me, fingers tangled in my hair now.
“I’m gonna make you forget everything but me,” I promised, pulling her leggings off with her panties, undressing her fast…wanting her naked, wanting all of her. “Not the woods, not the Painter, not the stories. Just my mouth and your name and how fuckin’ good it feels when I’m makin’ love to you.”
She was warm and soft, her thighs parting with nothing but a sigh as I kissed my way lower. I mouthed the inside of her knee, then dragged my teeth along her skin like a warning. She was trembling, and I hadn’t even touched her properly yet.
I looked up, voice rough. “Need you to keep your eyes on me, darlin’. Can you do that?”
She nodded, already dazed.
“Good girl.”
I kissed the crease of her thigh, then the other, then finally—finally—slid my tongue over her clit. She arched with a gasp, her hands flying to my shoulders like she didn’t trust gravity to keep her grounded.
“Beau—”
I groaned into her, because fuck, hearing her say my name like that? Prettiest thing I’d ever heard.
I licked her again, then again, falling into a rhythm that had her panting, rocking her hips against my mouth like she didn’t care who heard. I sucked her clit, fucked her with my tongue, let her ride it like it was the only way to survive the night.
And maybe it was. Maybe we both needed this more than we could say.
“I want you to fuck me,” she whispered. “Please, Beau. Please—”
“You still remember your ghost stories?”
“That doesn’t—”
“Sounds like you need to come again,” I interrupted.
I rose just to strip off my shirt, wanting to feel closer to her—then I was pulling her close, kissing her. She straddled me, reaching for the button of my jeans, but I shook my head against her lips.
“I said not yet…”
“Then what…”
“I want you to sit on my face, baby,” I said. “Come on…come here.”
She let out a sound that might’ve been a whimper. Might’ve been a moan. Either way, it was the hottest thing I’d ever heard.
“Noelle,” I said, leaning back on the sleeping bag, my hands sliding up her thighs as she hesitated. “I want you up here. Want to feel you lose it for me. Let me worship you the way you deserve.”
She moved slow, crawling up until her knees were planted on either side of my head. Her cunt hovered just above my mouth, dripping and swollen and fucking perfect.
“Sit,” I ordered, voice low and full of heat. “I got you.”
She sank down, bracing her hands in my hair, her thighs shaking as I gripped her hips and pulled her flush to my face.
I moaned like a man dying of thirst.
Because that’s what she tasted like. Like water in the desert. Like salvation.
I buried my tongue in her, eating her like it was my goddamn mission. I sucked her clit until she cried out, then licked lower, teasing the edge of her entrance, fucking her shallow with my tongue until her knees were buckling and her rhythm turned feral.
She rode me like she’d been starving for it, grinding against my mouth, gasping my name over and over like she’d forgotten every other word.
“Beau—Beau, oh God—”
Her thighs locked around my head, and I let her use me, let her fuck my face, let her come as hard as she needed. When she shattered—loud, breathless, fucking divine—I held her there, drinking down every pulse of it.
She collapsed forward, trembling all over, and I eased her off me with shaking hands.
“I can’t even move,” she panted, sprawling out beside me on her stomach, lips swollen and red.
I kissed her shoulder, the top of her spine. I was already sitting up, following her movements—unbuttoning my pants to slide them off my hips. “You don’t have to.”
She looked up at me, staying in that position—her ass round and perfect, her pussy glistening with arousal between her thighs. I knelt behind her, running my hands up and down her thighs, over her ass.
“You want me to fuck you from behind, baby?” I asked.
Noelle nodded…hesitant at first, then more confident. “Yeah,” she whispered. “Like that night in the woods.”
I gave her a half-smile as I held her hips, pulling her up onto her knees. My cock dragged through her folds, Noelle moaning softly. “You liked that?”
She nodded again, a blush spreading up her cheeks. “I want you to talk to me that way again, too. Like…like you’re gonna marry me. Like you’re gonna put a baby in me. Like you love me.”
My hands flexed hard around her hips, and for a second I couldn’t breathe.
Because fuck.
That was everything. The way she said it—barely more than a whisper, but full of want, full of something that cut right through all the shit we’d danced around. All the what-ifs and maybes and too-soons.
She wanted it.
She wanted me.
And I’d never wanted anything more than to give her all of it.
I leaned over her, dragging my mouth along the curve of her shoulder, letting the head of my cock notch right where she was slick, hot, waiting.
“I do love you,” I whispered. “More than I should. More than I know how to say.”
She trembled beneath me.
“And yeah, baby,” I rasped. “I’m gonna marry you. Gonna put a ring on your finger and tattoo your fuckin’ name on my soul.”
I pushed in slow, groaning as I filled her inch by inch. She gasped, braced herself tighter, and I gave her a second to breathe—just a second—before I was moving again, fucking her deep and steady, holding nothing back.
“You’re so fuckin’ gorgeous, Noelle,” I gasped. “Fuck…fuck, I love you. Give you anything you ask for, every drop, every dream…every future you ever even halfway thought you might want.”
Her body clenched around me when I said it—tight and desperate—and fuck, I felt that everywhere.
I gripped her hips, moved deeper. Slower. Let her feel all of it.
“You want it?” I panted. “Want me to fill you up, baby?”
“Yes—yes, Beau—please—”
“Yeah, that’s it,” I breathed, eyes locked on the way she was taking me, the obscene way my cock vanished inside her clenching, dripping pussy. “You want my cum? Want me to give you everything I got?”
She moaned so loud I had to bite my own lip to keep from falling apart right then and there.
I leaned over her back, pressed my hand to her stomach. “Right here,” I whispered against her ear. “I want it to take. I want it to stick.”
She whimpered—needy and raw—and pushed back against me like she couldn’t get close enough.
“You’d be so pretty,” I rasped. “All round and glowing, lettin’ me take care of you. Feed you, rub your back, fuck you slow when you’re achy.”
Her walls fluttered around me, and I nearly lost it.
“Shit, baby,” I groaned. “You keep squeezin’ me like that and I’m gonna give it to you right now.”
She turned her head just enough to meet my eyes. “Do it.”
I saw it in her face—how bad she wanted it. Not just the sex.
Me.
The whole damn thing.
“I love you,” she breathed, and my rhythm stuttered…stopped. “I love you, Beau Ward.”
I stared at her for a second, still inside her…still feeling so fuckin’ good. Doubt flickered in her eyes, and I knew then that I had to fucking move.
So I pulled her up to kneeling, one hand on her breast, the other turning her face to kiss me.
And I kept fucking her.
Slow…deep…
“I love you, Noelle,” I whispered against her lips.
“Love you—”
“I wanna marry you.”
“Yes, yes, yes…”
I groaned into her mouth like I couldn’t bear the weight of it—all that hope, all that wanting. My cock throbbed inside her, slow and deep and steady. I couldn’t go fast. Didn’t want to. I wanted her to feel every inch, every word, every vow I was laying into her body with each thrust.
“I’m yours,” I murmured, kissing her like I needed her breath in my lungs. “Always been yours.”
Her fingers clutched at my forearm, nails digging in when I rolled my hips harder. She was panting now, so close again I could feel it—tight, wet, her body begging for release.
“I’m gonna come,” she gasped. “Beau—fuck, I’m gonna—”
“That’s it,” I groaned, dragging my lips down her jaw, her neck. “Come for me. Let me feel it. Let me give it to you.”
She shattered in my arms, trembling and hot and clenching around me so tight it pulled a broken moan from my chest. I pushed deep—so deep—and let go, spilling inside her with a shudder that shook me to my bones.
“Take it,” I whispered, eyes fluttering shut. “Take every fuckin’ drop, baby.”
We collapsed together, tangled and sweaty and spent, our bodies a mess of heat and breath and something that felt dangerously close to forever.
I didn’t pull out. I didn’t want to.
I just wrapped my arms around her and held her close, her back against my chest, her breath still shaky as I kissed her temple.
“I meant it,” I said softly. “All of it.”
She turned her face just enough to kiss the corner of my mouth. “I know.”
And that should’ve been enough. That was enough.
But the truth kept burning a hole in my chest—low and quiet and insistent. I wasn’t rushing, I wasn’t spiraling…but I also wasn’t about to lie by omission, not after everything we’d just said.
So I reached for my jeans and fished around in the pocket. My heart was still pounding. My body was still humming from her. And yeah—maybe this looked insane from the outside.
But to me, it was just honest.
“Noelle,” I said.
Her eyes snapped open at my tone, the mood shifting. She rolled onto her back and sat up, blinking hard as she looked from the amethyst ring in my hand to my face.
It didn’t make sense; I got that. It barely made sense to me.
But then her lips parted…and I knew she got it.
“I don’t have a speech,” I said, breath still ragged. “And I’m not askin’ for anything to change tomorrow. But I couldn’t sit on this and not tell you the truth. If you want me, I’m yours. Fully. Forever. No takebacks.”
She stared at me—naked and flushed and trembling—with something I could only call wonder.
Then she laughed—a wet, stunned little thing that caught in her throat. She covered her mouth, eyes like full moons.
“Beau,” she whispered.
“I mean it,” I said, quieter now. “I’ll build a life with you—whatever that looks like. I’ll wake up next to you and fix whatever needs fixin’.”
“You haven’t even fixed my car,” she laughed.
“Okay…maybe I won’t fix the things that take away an excuse to be with you,” I laughed. “But I’ll learn how to be a good man for you every damn day—if you want it. No pressure. No rush.”
She looked at the ring. Then back at me.
Then she reached out, cupped my face like she needed to hold the moment still, and said, “Put it on me.”
I did—hands shaking, heart thudding. It slid on easy, like it had been waiting for her all along, and it suited her just as well—the purple bringing out the blue-grey of her eyes, the onyx tones in her short hair.
And those moonstones…they were like a cat’s eyes shining in the dark.
I didn’t mention that part.
She looked at the ring again, then at me. Her mouth twitched. “So are we, like…engaged engaged? Or just ‘you put a ring on me after sex in a tent’ engaged?”
I grinned. “Baby, I don’t think there’s a difference.”
She laughed—a little wild—and threw herself into my arms like she had to be sure this was all real.
And God, it was.