by Claire Adams
When we got there, I started pulling the tent out immediately. The quicker we could get it up, the quicker we could get comfortable, and I was surprised when Lucy took it from me. She began unzipping the bag and pulled the poles out, and I watched her while she quickly worked on putting everything together.
While she was shivering in the rain.
“Jason, you wanna work on getting that mattress blown up? Once I’m done here, we can slip that bad boy in, get your little heater going, and get comfortable while we bust out some jerky.”
All I could do was watch her for a while. She looked so content and in her element, and it dawned on me that she really was as perfect as I thought she was. Here was this woman, clad in jeans and a massive sweater, putting together a tent in the freezing cold drizzle while she smiled and gave me direction on what to do. She had no issues taking the reins in order to ensure we got things going properly and efficiently, and I felt something in my chest yield to her.
This was a great idea.
She got the tent set up, and I pushed the mattress into the tent. We piled everything else in quickly before the rain really picked up. I got the small heater going inside the tent before we snuggled down onto the mattress, and I wrapped her up in my arms while we watched the rain hammer down on the tent.
“I haven’t been camping in so long,” Lucy said.
“Well, you seem to be in your element,” I said.
“I really am. I used to go camping all the time as a kid, and then David and I picked up the trend when we were together.”
“Danielle was not a camper. Not by a longshot. I could get her fishing sometimes, but that just wasn’t her thing,” I said.
“David and I didn’t do it as often as I wanted to, but we tried to get out two, three times a year. We briefly talked about having kids before he got sick, and our one thing was we wanted to take them camping so they could grow up with the memories we did,” she said.
I tightened my grip around her, and she pulled her head onto my chest. It was a wonderful feeling, her being able to talk freely about David with me. But the idea that I could talk freely about Danielle without her recoiling was something I never thought I’d find in another woman.
She really was incredible.
“Wanna go hiking once the rain stops?” I asked.
“In the mud and dirt? Yes, please,” she said, giggling. “Just don’t expect me to hop in the lake to wash off.”
“Nah. We can slum it for a weekend before I demand you shower twice a day to my liking,” I said.
“You know what would be fun?” she asked. “Taking Jenna camping. If you’d let me, I’d love to take her.”
“I actually haven’t been camping with Jenna yet,” I said.
“What? If she were my kid, she would’ve already been camping at least five times by now,” she said.
“I don’t know. Things were so chaotic after Danielle died,” I said. “I was so intent on raising her and reading books because I was so lost. My hunting and fishing took a backseat to this little girl I had no idea what to do with, and I guess our lives only started to settle down when we got here.”
Lucy raised her hand to cup my cheek, and I nuzzled into her palm. Even with how dreary and cold the weather was, her skin was toasty warm against mine.
“In some odd way, even though Danielle wasn’t an outdoorsy person, it reminded me of her.”
“How so?” Lucy asked, turning her body toward me.
“I mean, she didn’t hunt or camp, but she loved being outside. She had this rocking chair that went everywhere with us, and no matter what, she’d stick that thing on a porch and rock for hours. She loved the feeling of the wind through her hair, and when we were dating, we’d always taken drives through the mountains to watch the leaves change.”
“They’re beautiful when they change,” she said.
“Jenna has always been an outdoorsy kind of kid, like her mom. And I guess, the idea of taking her camping and being outdoors all the time, it hurt.”
“I know,” she said as her thumb ran along my cheek. “I know how that feels.”
“Did you camp much after David died?” I asked.
“This is actually my first time since,” she said.
I turned my head to face her, and the empathy in her eyes freed me in way I’d never been. I was being held by a beautiful woman with big, shining eyes and long, honey hair, and she was understanding every word that was flying from my mouth. The years I’d spent trying to find someone I could talk to, trying to find someone who understood, had pushed me to this moment.
And I’d almost thrown it away because I had been an idiot.
“Lucy, I need you to understand something,” I said. “I didn’t just bring you out here to try and repair things between us.”
“I know, I know,” she said, sighing. “You brought me out here to make sweet, sweet love to me underneath the stars so no man would want me after you.”
I chuckled at her response before I turned my body completely toward her. Her hand slowly slid down my face before she spread her palm against my chest, and I couldn’t help but allow my cold fingers to migrate up her sweater. They hit her skin, ice to a fiery flame, and she jumped at the cold before she settled against my touch.
“I brought you out here because I want to share all of this with you. These are areas of my life that are important to me, and with everything that’s happened these past two weeks, I just—”
I got lost in her eyes for a second. She pressed her body closer to mine, and my hand slid from her stomach around to her back. I could feel her breath pulsing against my nose before she planted a cold little kiss to the tip of it, and I nuzzled her before her voice broke the silence.
“I care about you, too, Jason,” she said.
“I don’t just care about you, though. You’re important to me. You’re important to Jenna. Fuck, you should’ve seen the look on her face when you weren’t there for Thanksgiving. I had this twisted fucking notion that I was doing the right thing by her, and it all ended in bullshit I created for no good reason.”
“Jason, it’s all right,” she said.
“It’s not all right. I-I want a relationship with you. You’re important to me. I feel myself healing whenever I’m around you, healing from everything that happened with Danielle. My God, losing her destroyed my world, Lucy. And I never thought I’d ever love again until you came along.”
“What?” she asked breathlessly.
I realized what had fallen from my lips, but there was no stepping back from this. I pressed my hand into the small of her back and scooted her body closer to mine, and then I let the phrase fly like she had a few weeks ago.
“I love you, Lucy,” I said.
She pulled back and studied me, and I could see the panic flaring high behind her eyes. The phrase slipped from my lips as easily as it had graced her ears, and for a split second, I thought she was going to get up and walk away. I thought she was going to grab her things, rip this tent open, and hike all the way back home.
Just like she had at that restaurant.
“And I’m so, so sorry for what—”
She crashed her lips into mine, and all at once, the world came smashing down around us. The rain battered our tent, and the lake sloshed higher onto the shore than usual. The whirling of the heater swirled around our bodies, and the mattress squeaked underneath our bodies. But the only thing I could take in was how warm and sweet Lucy tasted. All I could take in was how her body pressed deeply into mine. All I could take in was how perfect it felt to have her curves underneath my fingertips.
And then, she ghosted over my lips the phrase that had made me melt the first time she’d said it.
“I love you, too, Jason.”
My eyes fluttered open, and I watched her face flush with lust. With love. I could feel her nipples caressing my chest, aching in the cold and trying to reach out toward warmth. I ran my hands up her sweater, feeling every inch of her while she shivere
d into my touch, and I pressed a kiss to her forehead before she opened her eyes.
“I never thought I would ever feel like this after David,” she said. “I kind of swore off men. Everyone, really. My sister, my parents. I almost quit my job.”
“Why didn’t you?” I asked.
“Because David hated the food there, so he never came in to eat. It was the only thing in my life that hadn’t been touched by him,” she said.
“But you’re here,” I said. “In a place and a situation that reminds you very much of him. Are you all right with that?”
“I’m more than all right,” she said. “I’m happy.”
I smiled against her forehead before I trailed kisses down to her neck. My hands migrated to her jeans, easily undoing the button while my teeth slowly grazed over her skin. Her body arched so perfectly into mine, so desperate for my touch and anything I was willing to give her. I wanted to tease her. To push her to the brink time and time again before tears of desperation and frustration dripped down her cheeks. I wanted to catch those tears on my tongue before I gave her release after release, her body trembling and shaking until all she could do was collapse into me.
But I knew I wouldn’t have the patience. I wanted her, needed to feel her against me. I needed to feel her juices on my tongue and swallow her tastes down. I needed to sink myself into her body while looking her in the eyes. I needed to wrap my lips around hers and drink her in because I didn’t know when the next time would be.
If Danielle’s death had taught me anything, it was to never pussyfoot around with something you wanted.
“Jason,” Lucy said breathlessly.
“You’re beautiful,” I said, murmuring into her neck.
And as she pulled my shirt over my head, my hands slipped into her jeans and slowly began to peel them from her legs.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Lucy
His body was warm against mine even as the rain knocked against the tent. A storm was rolling in, and the wind was whistling by, but the only thing my mind was focused on was how beautiful Jason’s tongue felt. The whole of the earth was upheaving in a stormy terror, casting thick shards of lightning that brought out the shadows against his skin. He licked and sucked, rolling my clit around his mouth before he lapped up my juices, and it was all I could do to keep my noises under control while my body quivered in his wake.
“Holy fuck, Jason,” I said breathlessly. “Oh. Oh, my god.”
I felt a pressure at my pussy entrance before electricity crackled up my legs. He slid his fingers inside my pussy, scissoring them against the areas he knew I adored most. My legs shook, and my body fell weak to his, and the thunder of the roaring storm shook our bodies as he lapped up my slit. His fingers crooked themselves in exactly the right way, rubbing that spot he knew I adored, and my hands gripped his hair while my hips rocked into him. My breasts bounced with every roll of my hips, and I could feel my pussy lips coating his cheeks.
But instead of backing off, he dug deeper. Instead of coming up for the air I knew I was stifling him, he dug deeper. Instead of backing off and teasing my body to its very edge while making me squirm for him, he dug in deeper and hung on for the ride.
And the thunder shook the ground while his tongue shook my body.
“Lick me, please. Oh, fuck. Lick me harder. Harder. Just like that. Please. Please. Please.”
The thunder rolled in the distance, and it shook the whole of the earth that surrounded us. Lightning pierced the sky as that burning sensation sailed through my body as if synchronized with our pleasure, setting me on fire while the rain battered against the walls of the tent. Jason began to thrust his fingers slowly, painfully, drawing out my inevitable undoing as I dug my heels into the strength of his back.
My body wanted to pin him to my skin and never let him go.
“Almost there. Almost there.”
Lightning pierced the sky, thunder shook our rib cages, and all at once, I fell over the precipice. The rhythmic rumble swallowed my cries of pleasure, calling out Jason’s name while my entire body pulled taut underneath him. My hands pulled him deeper into me, and I could feel him smirking into my pussy. He was proud of the way he could unravel me at the simple beckoning of his tongue, and there wasn’t any part of me that was willing to deny it. This man knew how to strum my body effortlessly. He knew how to rip my control from me and keep me begging for more. He knew exactly what I needed to cum, and he was more than willing to give it to me.
This man held me—body and soul—in the palm of his hand while he drank down the juices I had for him.
My walls clamped down onto his fingers, begging for more and wishing to be stretched to their limits. With every breathless pulse my pussy made around his fingers, it begged for yet another release. My body was becoming greedy for him. My body knew the pleasures he could instill within it, and every drop of cum he licked from my entrance was another breathless cry for more.
My body couldn’t get enough of him, and he knew that’s what he did to me. He knew how he made me feel, and he knew he could reduce me to the writhing puddle I now was on the floor of our tent. He knew I wanted all of him, no matter the fit the weather was throwing outside.
And Jason was not in a denying sort of mood.
He rushed up my body and matched his silky lips to mine, and I couldn’t help but lick my taste off his skin. It was the perfect mixture of my scent and his, and I sucked his lower lip between my teeth in a greedy attempt to pull more from him. He fell between my legs as they quivered and shook, and before I could catch my breath, he slowly slid into me effortlessly, like my body had willingly opened itself up to him just so he could take what he wanted.
Every inch of him filled me up while the lightning continued to dance across the sky, rivaling the storm of sensation inside our tent. He released my lips from his, and I could feel his dick growing larger inside my pussy. He sat there, wholly encompassed by my body, as my eyes took him in. With every flash of lightning, the shadows painted his face, drawing from him a dark reality I don’t think I’d never realized until this very moment.
The thunder raging outside shattered my world as his cock grew against my walls, and I lifted my hand to his face just so I could trace the outline of his cheek. There was a wetness there. A tear I couldn’t see because of the shadows the storm cast upon his face, and suddenly the dark reality of his wanton lust faded into a man who was simply collecting himself as he gazed upon what he wanted most.
But never did I expect to hear the words grace my ears that flew from his lips at that very moment.
“I love you,” he said.
I studied his gaze while I held his body. I slipped my arms around his neck as a smile bloomed upon my face, and I saw the innocent and loving man I’d always known him to be slowly crawl forth. The dark argument that had raged upon his face just before he uttered those words told me that a part of him didn’t feel he had a right to. Part of him felt he didn’t have a right to feel the way he did or experience the things he was experiencing, and I couldn’t allow him to continue to think that.
I couldn’t allow him to go another second in his life thinking he didn’t deserve the love I had for him.
I rushed my hands down his back before I rolled my hips into his, and his beautiful gaze faltered when his eyes rolled toward the back of his head. I smirked at the way I could crumble this strong man. His muscles throbbed with a glowing pleasure as lightning continued to streak across the sky, but his strength was nothing compared to the pleasure my body could give him.
The pleasure my body was willing to give him.
In that very moment, I saw everything. I saw the man I loved as well as a family I wished I’d had. I saw a future and a home rather than a lonely life and a house. I saw a warm bed and familial holidays spent with people I enjoyed rather than people I felt I had to see.
I saw a life I could create with him, and I rolled my hips up to meet his as his body faltered yet again.
�
�And I love you, Jason,” I said.
Lightning danced around his body, playing shadows on his face while I watched the show. His eyes had me hooked while his hips rolled delicately into mine, and I planted my heels into the bed and rose to meet his thrusts. My nipples raked along his strong chest, feeling every single muscle he was working in order to bring me pleasure. He was beautiful in the stormy light, but this raging storm had nothing on how my body felt underneath his.
“Faster,” I said, whispering.
“As you wish,” he said.
He picked up his pace while the thunder rocked the outside world. Rain came down sideways upon the tent, but the only thing dripping onto my body was the sweat trickling from Jason’s brow. My body hummed while his dick throbbed deep inside of me, and I could feel my juices dripping down my ass crack while his balls smacked my body.
I clawed my way up his back, leaving crescent indents where my fingernails dug in. His body pounded into mine, spreading our scents everywhere in the tent while I nipped and sucked at the skin on his shoulder. His moans and groans fell heavily upon my ears, drowning out the intensity of the storm while my body climbed up its peak, and I knew the moment I caught his lips with mine that I was done for.
There would never be another man like Jason, and I didn’t want another man after Jason.
“I’m so close,” he said, grunting in my ear.
“I love you,” I said. “I love you so much. Please don’t stop. I’ll do anything. Just. Don’t. Stop.”
I smacked against him with an urgency that had my tits bouncing against his body. As his dick sank into me, I lost control of my body and my mind. My entire being had been handed over to this beautiful, chiseled, caring man, who was driving me to the brink of insanity before throwing me over into a sea of pleasure. I could feel the electricity crackling the tips of my toes as every single hair follicle on my body stood on end. I could feel the breathless rapture with every thrust that sank his dick deep into my body.