“That’s your dream, baby. This one is mine. I want you begging for it.” My inner muscles clamped down tight and the sensation of slowly being taken over from the inside out was only tempered by how wet I was for Whit.
“P-please.” He gave me half a dozen rapid thrusts, which I was unprepared for and lost my balance under him.
“I got you, Lia.” His arm slid under me, gentle, taking the pressure off my arms. He started again this time thrusting slowly until I was crying and forgetting my common sense.
He was that good.
The orgasm that hit me was like lightning and too quick to catch as I frantically attempted to meet his pumping hips move for move. My heart beat so fast it was like the wheels on my bike in spin class had flown off running away with careless abandon. We collapsed on the ground and his body crushed me for a moment before he rolled off and the cold bit my damp skin. I lay there, eyes shut, more at peace and complete than ever before and in so much danger of losing my reckless heart.
Whit was everything a man should be…rough and gentle, honest and funny…and yet I wasn’t able to fully appreciate that. I could barely get my life to stay on course long enough to pick a college major, part of the reason I left Brooklyn to come upstate. The peace and quiet was supposed to temper me until I met him. Sadness filled me and I knew deep down this beautiful time together was a borrowed dream.
I wasn’t the girl who got the guy, I dated disasters and train wrecks, and I was delusional to think otherwise. After all, I did say this was a one-time deal no matter how much I might have wanted more.
How do you walk away from something so good with goodbye on your lips and regret in your heart? Maybe it was cliché to say our timing was off but clearly we had different trajectories. Maybe we’d see each other in town. Maybe I’d take another ill-fated walk in the woods in the hopes of him walking up on me during a patrol. Maybe I’d see him grabbing a coffee and handing it off to the girl he’s supposed to be with. A girl who wasn’t me.
My thoughts were interrupted by a cellphone ringing. “Finally!” Whit rolled to stand up grabbing for his phone. With the storm long gone it seemed cell service on the mountain was restored. “It’s my boss, Jeff. I’ll text him and let him know you’re okay.” He handed me my clothes that felt stiff from drying overnight as he tapped out a message on his phone looking eager to put this past us.
“Fantastic.” I quipped, feeling anything, but fantastic at all.
10
Whit
“Hey, make sure you guys put the fire out properly.” Conner and Mateo dumped water and what I presumed was beer over the fire, letting it fizzle out in a stale alcohol stink. Great, illegal camping and underage drinking…I avoided looking at Lia as Ryder handed her the jacket she forgot yesterday.
The wind picked up blowing a breeze through camp chilling the morning air. Her arms pushed through the sleeves of her jacket and I wished it were my arms instead coming around to hold her one last time. I rubbed my hand over the knot in my neck reminding myself she put up the parameters for what happened last night. I had no right to be annoyed. Soft skin and sweet kisses aside, this was done.
Insane that I was still interested in her, right? It was one night and I should let it go, walk away, and move on. Yet my legs were on pause obviously not receiving the message from my brain because I took a step toward her. Didn’t matter anyway because Ryder was already there moving in and guiding her away toward his newfangled wheels with sparkly silver rims. He was a first class tool.
Do I ask for her number?
Do I even want her number?
How appropriate is this?
Was Jeff’s report from yesterday thorough enough to get that information? I would have been pulling at the ends of my hair in frustration and maybe a tad bit of jealousy if I’d been alone. Maybe the report had her address in town on it since she was a student. Oh for fuck’s sake, now I sounded like a stalker or an unskilled teenager on a first date. What the hell was I thinking getting involved with her? She was barely legal in my book despite being over eighteen.
“Come on, Amelia. We’ve got to get back to campus for football practice this afternoon, and Dinah has work.” Football dude sounded annoyed, but I didn’t give a shit as long as he kept his hands on the roommate only. This sudden protective streak jarred me and I wasn’t sure I was ready to explore that right this second. I still hadn’t worked out where to go from here.
Probably because I had my dick in her like a caveman less than an hour earlier and I knew first-hand what she tasted like after I got her off. Asinine, but still, I couldn’t let it go and walk away.
“Right, we should be going.” Lia walked away with her head down, following her friends, avoiding eye contact with me. She wasn’t being rude per say, but it stung and felt harsh dismissed like that. Was she ashamed of what happened last night? If memory served she made the first move, right? Part of me wanted to yell, hey I can still taste you on my tongue, but that would have been crude and bordering on outright stalker behavior. She kept walking away and I assumed she wasn’t giving me much of a choice about letting this go. My stomach wanted to heave. This was not my normal.
“Wait.” She stopped, her hand on Ryder’s arm as she turned back jogging toward me. “Um…your sweatshirt?” she plucked the red cotton under her jacket and I shrugged. It would keep her warm now that I couldn’t and put an extra layer between her and the jock. Yup, I was feeling petty as fuck right now.
“You keep it,” rubbing a hand behind my neck, I thought how awkward this all was the morning after. Her cheeks tinged red to match the sweatshirt. Dark purple strands stuck out of her dark braid this morning messy from the finger combing she’d given it after our last round of wildness. The coil of hair reminded me of fine rope I had in my garage at home. The neon nylon kind perfect for securing tents or wayward lovers…and this was why I lived alone. I doubted she’d want any part of my old deviant ass.
She murmured, “Okay.”
I gripped her chin between my fingers forcing her to look me in the eyes one last time. Violet orbs I would miss. “Be safe.” I said letting her go. It sounded lame and something a dad would say to his rebellious kid before sending them off to college. Lame dad, yeah, that was me. Damn, I was a righteous a mess.
Walking backward she nodded one last time brushing the multicolored hair off her face. I needed to back off and return to my own life since this girl clearly wanted nothing more to do with me.
“Thanks.” That was the last thing she said to me smiling as she got inside the idiot’
s car, leaving me standing there with nothing but the smoldering campfire for company. Thanks for what? Saving her life last night? Fucking her into next week?
“Yeah. Thanks.” I waved them off and walked over to my own parked vehicle. Darkness settled over me with each bit of distance that increased between us. I kicked the tire of my jeep letting the frustration course through me. It felt like I was waiting for her to say something, but we’d agreed that this was just a passing thing, hadn’t we? So why did I suddenly feel like our agreement was meant to be broken? My head was going to explode from frustration while my stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten a decent meal since yesterday.