CHAPTER NINE
Summer
I’MMUTE. There are no words for the desire racing through my veins. To see him, his body mostly naked, the muscles in his forearms flexing as he grips the edge of his bed and plants his feet firmly on the floor...
My head is empty of any coherent thought save one: Please don’t reject me.
‘Summer?’
He says my name again and I’m so hooked on hearing him say it. His impossibly deep voice, deeper still. His brown eyes, wide and questioning. His body taut with a tension I know I’ve put there.
I close the distance between us, every breath I take loud in my ears, my heartbeat too.
‘You can tell me to leave, Edward, and I will.’ I know I need to tell him this before I go any further. Give him an escape if he needs it.
‘Leave?’
His frown is delectable, his confusion written in every line of his brow. And, my God, is it sexy. His eyes too. There’s a hint of feeling lost, of curiosity, and then he glances lower and the burn is there. The burn that gives me the confidence to close in.
In my gut, I know he’s fighting the same battle as me. That his tension is about the fear of what comes next. But if you don’t think about the future...if you only think about the here and now and the pleasure it can bring...then fear is a waste of energy.
Energy that can be expended in far more satisfying ways.
I rest a hand on his naked shoulder, catch his sharp intake of breath, the jolt that runs through him. He’s all hot, hard heat beneath my tingling palm, and the contact is enough to send tiny sparks of electricity coursing through my veins.
‘Do you know what you’re doing?’
His eyes lift to mine, his voice so raw it rasps over me as powerful as any caress, though his grip on the bed fails to ease. Still fighting. Still resisting.
I slip myself between his legs, raise my palm to his other shoulder. ‘Do you?’
His Adam’s apple bobs...his jaw pulses.
And then I lower my head to his. Slow enough to let him stop me if he so desires...slow enough to let the anticipation build. There’s a flush to his cheeks—a flush I feel right through to my core. I search his gaze, the glow of the bedside lamp lancing his darkened depths with gold.
‘Edward,’ I whisper, our noses almost touching, ‘I’ve wanted this for so long. And I think you want me too. I don’t need endearments. I don’t need words or empty promises. All I need is you. Tonight.’
And then I kiss him, and it’s like I’ve never kissed a man before. The lightest sweep of my lips over his and the contact pulses through me in a surge of heat so powerful that my knees weaken and my limbs turn molten. But I don’t fall because he’s got me, his hands flying to my thighs, tugging me against him, and his tongue is delving inside my mouth, his groan so fierce, filled with passion, with surrender.
There’s no restraint. No composure. And I revel in it. In the way his hands rake with desperation over my skin, in his tongue as it twists and tangles with my own...
Our breaths are ragged and in tune...our bodies vibrating with such need it feels impossible to get enough. Enough oxygen. Enough sensation. Enough of one another. And I want his all.
‘Summer...’
He growls into my mouth, his fingers rough in my hair as I straddle his hips, ride against the ridge of his desire. He tears his mouth away, his groan verging on pained as his erection reaches for me and he holds me back.
‘This is a bad idea.’
‘Sometimes bad ideas are the most rewarding kind.’ I kiss him again, lower my hand between us to caress him, and his thighs shudder beneath me. ‘Don’t you agree?’
‘Yes!’ He curses. ‘Yes!’ But he tugs my hand away, his eyes firing up at me. ‘I’d like to make it last, though.’
Make it last... If only this kind of pleasure could last for ever...
I block the worrying train of thought and chuckle low in my throat, rake my fingers through his hair, deepen the kiss, think about the now, not what comes next.
His palms come to my aid, slipping beneath my tee. I suck in a breath, arch back as the heat of anticipation floods my breasts. My nipples press against the fabric, hard and desperate...desperate for that first touch. From Edward. My teenage heartthrob. My lifelong dream.