“It’s amazing.” She wrapped her legs tentatively around his hips as the soreness inside began to fade, replaced by more of the hunger he’d awakened inside of her. “So perfect.”
“You’re perfect,” he said, gliding in and out of her with a shaky breath. “God, Tulsi, it’s never felt like this before. Not even close.”
“Like what?” she asked, pulse leaping.
“So right.” He kissed her neck, her jaw, the hollow beneath her ear, before whispering against her skin, “Like you’re the one I should have been doing this with all along.”
She sighed as her fingertips trailed down his muscled back. “I’m so glad you’re my first.”
“I wish you’d been mine,” he said, staring deep into her eyes. “Promise me we’ll make this work. I don’t want to lose you when I go on the road.”
“You won’t, I promise,” she said, tears of happiness filling her eyes. “All I want is you, Pike. All I’ve ever wanted is you.”
He captured her lips, kissing her until she was breathless as he continued to move inside her, binding her heart closer to his with every sensual shift of his hips. Within a few minutes, the last of Tulsi’s discomfort faded and things low in her body pulled tight, tighter, until she was lifting desperately into his thrusts.
“Come, baby,” he said, sounding as breathless as she felt. “I want to hear you call my name before I come. I want to feel you—”
She cut him off, crying his name loud enough to send the birds nesting in the nearby trees fluttering into the night sky. The bliss coursing through her body was so much more powerful than when Pike had brought her over with his hands or his mouth. She felt like she was drowning in pleasure, suffocating on euphoria, dying and being reborn as Pike joined her for the long fall, his body jerking inside of her as he found release.
She was so happy, so dizzy with joy, that when Pike pulled out with a curse and began to talk in a low, urgent tone, she couldn’t make sense of what he was saying until he’d repeated himself.
“The condom, Tuls,” he said, holding it up between them with one trembling hand. “It broke.”
Tulsi sat up on the thick blankets they’d spread before the fire, her heart racing as she realized what that could mean. “Okay, so…what do we do?”
He shook his head as he tossed the condom into the paper bag along with their trash from dinner. “I don’t know. I’ve never had one break before. But I think there’s a pill or something you can take. We’d have to go into town and talk to the pharmacist. Or maybe your doctor?”
“Oh God,” Tulsi said, running a hand through her blond curls. “I can’t, Pike. Dr. Brown’s been our family doctor since my mom was a baby. If I go to him, my parents will find out, and my dad will kill me. Reece is the one who gets into trouble, I’m supposed to be the good one.”
“You’re still the good one.” Pike reached out, drawing her into his lap. “You didn’t do anything wrong. We were trying to be responsible, but…accidents happen.”
Tulsi shook her head. “My dad won’t see it that way. And I don’t know what he’ll do. He said he’d pay for college, but if he finds out about this…”
Pike hugged her closer with a sigh. “I get it. Your dad’s not as much of an asshole as mine, but…I understand why you’re worried. Still, we should be more worried about what happens if our timing is off. Do you remember when you had your period?”
Tulsi’s tongue slipped out to dampen her lips as she thought back over the past few weeks. “It’s been almost…three weeks. I had it the week before spring break.”
His arms relaxed around her. “Then we should be fine.”
“Really?” she asked, gazing up at him, unable to keep from noticing how handsome he looked in the firelight even when she was scared to death.
“Really,” he said with a smile as he smoothed her hair from her face. “We’re at least a week too late for a baby. It’s fine. No worries.”
Tulsi sagged against him in relief. “Thank goodness. I’m not ready.”
“Me, either,” he said with a laugh. “I want a few more years of having you all to myself.”
She tipped her head back, gazing up at him with a mixture of wonder and disbelief. “Did you just say what I think you said?”
“What?” he asked, an uncertain note in his voice. “Don’t you want to have kids with me someday?”
Tulsi nodded numbly, worried her chest might explode from an overload of joy.
“Too soon?” he asked when she was silent for another long minute. “Should I pretend I’m not crazy in love with you?”
Tulsi’s nod transformed into a swift shake of her head, making him laugh.
“Good.” He kissed her bare shoulder. “Because I am, and I’m going to figure out a way for us to be together. I promise.”