by Nella Tyler
“What’s so wrong with that?” I asked in a low voice. I wanted my hands on her, my mouth on hers, and I wanted to take my time, enjoying every full curve of her body while she did the same to mine. We had the rest of the week to fall into each other before our parents came home. After that, the rest of our lives. She just needed to give herself permission. I was right here. I wasn’t going anywhere.
“I don’t just want sex, Carter,” she insisted, that defiant gleam back in her eye. “I want a relationship. It doesn’t really bother me that we’re stepsiblings. We were adults when our parents got married. But we live on opposite sides of the country. Our lives are completely separate now.”
“But they don’t have to be,” I insisted. “Lots of people have long distance relationships. It’s more work, but we’ve kept our love for each other going even without speaking for years. After that hurricane, I’m sure we can weather any storm.”
She still looked uncertain, but the hard expression on her face had softened a little. “I don’t know.”
“Sophia, I know what I want. I’ve always known. And if what you told me last night was true, you have, too. Right now, you’re over thinking this. I know because I’ve spent the last three years overthinking everything that’s ever happened between us, trying to discover the exact point where things went wrong. Right now, you need to trust your heart. If it’s telling you to be with me, then be with me.”
Sophia stared at me, her mouth dropping open a little as her eyes widened in surprise. I wasn’t sure exactly what I said, but I kept going in the same direction, bolstered by the sudden openness in her expression.
“Our parents had to wait a long time to find each other, and they didn’t let anyone deter them from what they wanted. They found love the same way we can, Sophia. We just need to listen to what our hearts are saying.”
She blinked slowly, as though seeing me for the first time. And then she leaned into me, kissing me gently on the mouth, her lips cool, but urgent. I brought my hands to her face. Kissing her lips again, then her nose, then her forehead. I kept my lips there, whispering what I had to say into her still cool skin.
“I should have started a relationship with you back in high school. I’ve known I wanted you since seventh grade. I was a coward and a fool.”
I leaned back just enough to look her in the eyes. The electricity was starting between us again, that low flicker that would turn into a forest fire the longer we were together. She wanted me, and I wanted her. The rest of the world could burn down around us for all I cared.
“I’ve never dated a girl more than a few times before everything fell apart,” I confessed, stoking that heat between us with every word I spoke. “And now I know why.”
Sophia’s eyes were enormous as she stared into mine. Her chest was rising and falling at the bottom of my vision as her body trembled at my touch.
“Why?” she whispered.
“Because I was in love with you, even when I tried to deny it.”
Her eyebrows lifted slightly, and we moved closer in the same instant, kissing more deeply this time.
Everything fell away — the uncertainty over last night, the jittery energy from being denied what I wanted most in the world, the worry that Sophia would just disappear into my past again now that our parents had married and gone off for a week.
I pulled away again, just needing to tell her what I was thinking, what I’d been thinking for years. “I love you.”
She replied in a breathy whisper, her chest heaving as her lips curled into a slight smile. “I love you, too, Carter. I always have.”
I brought her lips to mine again, letting that passion light me up from the inside out.
Sophia
The Same Afternoon
Just touching Carter’s lips undid me. The passion exploded all over the inside of my needy, trembling body, and I couldn’t help myself from wanting my lips on his, from wanting my tongue deep in his mouth. I pushed him into the back of the couch and climbed into his lap, never taking my mouth from his, just wanting as much of me touching as much of him as possible.
I didn’t know what I was thinking coming over here, like I’d ever be able to see the look in Carter’s gorgeous hazel eyes and tall, muscled body and not want to jump on him. After what happened last night, that was no longer an option. Something primal and hungry had unlocked deep within me after we were together, and I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about how he’d felt filling me up last night, and I couldn’t stop wanting him to do it again and again. It followed me into my dreams, and I woke up with the taste of him on my tongue and the need of him aching between my legs.
I moved my hips as I kissed him slowly and deeply, rubbing my crotch over his lap to get him even more excited than he already was. Our kissing got more passionate as his hands traveled over the back of my sweater, keeping me close to him. I was ready to start unzipping his jeans when he pulled away from me, leaving me breathless and wanting more.
“Let’s go upstairs,” he said.
I frowned a little, my body still moving over his in a naked attempt to just get him to stop talking and start kissing me again, followed by quickly stripping off his clothes. But when I kissed him again, he only let it last for a few seconds, teasing me with his tongue, before pulling away again.
“I want us to go slowly this time,” he whispered, and it didn’t help that his hot, panting breath was rushing over my face. His mouth was so kissable. But he wouldn’t let me fall into him again. He kept me upright with a gentle hand on my upper arm. “I want to really enjoy each other, not just tear off our clothes. Yesterday, I pulled up your dress and bent you over a table for a few seconds. Today, I want to explore every inch of you with my mouth.”
My body tingled at the sound of that, and that familiar yearning ran like a live wire from the wet place between my legs through the rest of me, making the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The prospect of exploring his body was extremely enticing. I’d spent this entire trip daydreaming about what Carter would look like without his clothes on. I wanted to run my hands down his long legs and muscled torso. I wanted to kiss him from his chest down to the trail of hair leading from his belly button to the throbbing hardness between his legs.
“I’d like to do the same thing to you,” I whispered. The smile he gave me made me want him even more. He was even more beautiful to me than he’d ever been because he was mine. I felt that deep in my bones the way Mom said I would. My heart wanted him, and so did everything else.
As much as I just wanted to tear his clothes from his body and have fast, dirty sex right here on the couch — or even the floor — I stood up and let him do the same, my eyes drawn to the crotch of his jeans, where I could see just how aroused he was, how much he wanted me, and that only got me even more soaking wet for him.
He took me by the hand and led me out of the room and up to the second floor. But we didn’t go to his room. He noticed the confusion on my face and smiled, but his eyes stayed full of the heat growing between us, which had taken up residence inside my chest and between my legs, completely casting out the chill from my brisk walk over here. I’d hoped the cold weather would clear my head, but it only made me surer of what I wanted. It had taken everything I had not to just jump on him the moment he opened the door.
“My old bedroom still has the twin bed from back in the day,” he explained. “But there’s a queen-sized bed in the guestroom.”
We went to the room in question. There was a neatly made bed in it, bookended by two simple nightstands. Besides that, the room was bare of all decoration. I closed the door behind us, though we were alone. Mom and John wouldn’t be back for a week and Lacey wasn’t home when I set out over here on foot, so she had no idea where I was. We had the rest of the day, the week, our lives if we wanted…
I didn’t want to jinx whatever this was by daring to think about the possibility of being together that long, but it kept creeping into my thoughts. That was, until Carter
turned to face me, heat in his shining eyes as he pulled the sweatshirt off over his head, taking the t-shirt underneath it off at the same time.
I took a moment to thoroughly enjoy the view. His wasn’t the tall, skinny boy I’d been friends with back in high school. My eyes traveled down the solid curves of his pecs, to his trim six-pack abs, biting my bottom lip as I took note of the trail of light hair from his belly button into his jeans, promising good things if only I got him out of the rest of his clothes.
I pulled my sweater off too, exposing my lacy black bra, and then took off my jeans while he watched, the desire on his face further heating up the air in the room, making it harder to breathe. Once I was standing before him in my matching bra and thong set, I lifted one eyebrow and motioned to his jeans.
“Get your pants off,” I ordered, biting my lip in anticipation.
He grinned, his cheeks coloring, but did what I asked, stepping out of them so he was only left wearing a skimpy pair of boxer briefs, his muscled legs impossibly long and the hard shape of him barely contained by the fabric straining over his crotch.
That did it — I leapt on him. We collapsed, gasping with breathy laughter, onto the bed, our mouths finding each other, tongues tasting the sweet nectar of our shared lust. I ran my hands over his smooth, nearly hairless chest as his hands worked to unhook my bra. It came loose, baring my breasts, and I threw it to the side, wanting nothing between us, no matter how skimpy. I wanted every inch of him rubbing against every inch of me.
Carter twisted me around so I was underneath him, my legs dangling off the edge of the bed. Grinning, he slid down the length of my body, kissing a trail from my erect nipples, down my torso, and finally, just below my belly button, all the while keeping his eyes on mine, the need in them matching the feelings boiling the blood in my veins and melting my vital organs.
He dropped onto his knees on the floor and gently pulled my panties off my hips and down my legs, taking his time, making me tremble with the need for him as his fingertips caressed my legs from thigh to calves. He pushed my legs apart and the feeling of his hot breath on my sex drew a moan from me. Before I could beg him to put his mouth on me, he dipped his head, and began to tease my lips with the tip of his tongue.
I whimpered his name, drawing in a sharp breath when his tongue moved passed my lips and entered me, sending tingling waves of pleasure through my body as he tasted me more enthusiastically. I lifted my feet onto the bed, opening myself even more to him, and he buried his face nose deep in my sex, sucking and licking at my lips and clit. Taking him by either side of his head, I directed him where I wanted him to go. The flicking of his tongue stirred up such exquisitely agonizing pleasure that I was ready to scream, but was too breathless. He brought me to the brink of climax, my sex dripping wet, before pulling back again, a sexy grin on his face that made me burn even hotter.
He wiped my moistness from his lips and traveled the distance up my body, tracing my quivering curves with his tongue. When he settled on top of me again, I twisted out from under him, pushing him onto his back. He gave me a questioning expression, his fingers circling the nipple on one of my breasts before squeezing playfully, causing me to moan for what felt like the hundredth time.
“My turn,” I said, and followed his example, sliding down his body and tasting every solid muscle on the way, from pecs to abs to obliques.
He lifted his hips so I could pull off his boxer briefs, freeing his fully aroused cock, which I took by the base, drawing a moan from him as I flicked my tongue over the velvety soft, sensitive tip. I took him into my mouth slowly, sucking hard as I looked up at him, loving the way his face contorted with the blissful sensations I was giving, as though he was on the brink of screaming. I sucked harder, moving my mouth up and down the thick length of him. His hips moved with me, pushing his cock further into my mouth so I could feel it pressing into the back of my throat. I kept up that rhythm, loving the sounds of his moans as I brought him closer to orgasm, but not quite all the way.
I took my mouth off of him, needing him now, no longer able to deny myself what my body demanded. I didn’t get very far up his body before he brought me around underneath him again, his hips sliding between my legs and pushing them open, the tip of his cock pressing into the heat of my needing, throbbing sex.
“How bad do you want this?” he whispered, his deep voice as sexy as the desire in his eyes.
“Give it to me,” I answered in a whisper. My body was overheating. I wanted him to quench this need in me, to end this sweet, aching torment. “Now.”
He shifted his powerful hips and thrust hard, entering me in a single stroke. I threw my head back, crying out behind clenched teeth at the pressure of having him inside me so quickly, his cock impaling me, the ecstasy utterly consuming my insides and casting out any thought that wasn’t about this moment. My body shuddered as more pressure began to build towards the sweet release only he could give.
Carter began a deep, fast rhythm, and I wrapped my arms around him, flattening my hands on his back so I could feel the rippling muscles beneath my fingers. After the loving attention his mouth had given my sex a few minutes ago, I was already on the edge of climaxing, and I could sense his body was in the same tingling place, both of us ready to simply succumb to that sweet, agonizing heat. He made deep, erotic noises as he plunged into me, only to recede again, his mouth very close to my ear so I could feel his hot breath and hear his whispered words.
“I’m coming,” he groaned. That undid me. My own orgasm seized my body, the prickling sensations blooming from the bundle of nerves between my legs to the rest of my sweat slick, shivering skin. I gasped his name as he roared behind gritted teeth, his body shuddering into mine, his cock pressing into me up to the hilt. I held onto him, not wanting this moment to end, the aftereffect of our orgasms echoing into each other’s bodies in bursts of diminishing pleasure.
We relaxed together, our tense muscles going as soft as the blankets underneath us. After a few more seconds of heavy breathing, our hearts beating out of our chests, he rolled off of me, our limbs still partially tangled as we continued to catch our breath.
“That was incredible,” Carter murmured.
“I love you,” I replied breathlessly, unable to think of anything else to say at the moment.
He smiled at me and took my hand. “I love you, too.”
We basked a little more in the splendid, sex-soaked silence, until he said, “We have so much to figure out.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m leaving in a week to go back to California, and you’re going back to New York. But we have a week to spend together and figure out all the logistics of who’s visiting who.”
I didn’t even want to consider any of that right now. It felt too good lying next to him, the sticky juices from our lovemaking still warm inside me. I wanted to live in this moment and nowhere else. The rest of the world could wait forever as far as I was concerned.
“I want to make you dinner,” he said suddenly.
I smiled drowsily. It would be so easy to fall asleep right now, to just let the exhaustion in my body take over. “You haven’t cooked for me in a long time.” He and his dad used to switch off days after his mom left. I’d forgotten how much he could do in the kitchen. He put me easily to shame.
“Let’s just lie here for a little longer.” I squeezed his hand and he squeezed mine back. I closed my eyes, letting the pleasurable afterglow of sexual satisfaction take me under.
Carter
Later that Same Afternoon
As soon as Sophia was dressed, I dropped her off at her place so she could get a few things done — I couldn’t believe the crazy woman had walked over to my house in this weather — and then drove to the grocery store to buy what I needed to put together a nice meal for later tonight. I had some leftovers to burn through, but I didn’t want to serve Sophia something that had already been prepared for our first sit down meal together in years.
I’d cook
ed for her before; nothing super special, just enough to fill us up whenever we were sitting around and hungry — but I wanted tonight to be special. I decided on spaghetti Bolognese, with a side salad and warm garlic bread. I had plenty of cookies and fudge Alice had brought over on the morning of Christmas Eve, so there was no need to buy anything for dessert.
I parked and hurried inside the grocery store. It felt like the temperature had dropped another ten degrees since yesterday. The air was bitterly cold, but at least it wasn’t snowing. That wasn’t going to last, though. The weather report on the radio said we were supposed to get a few inches overnight. I was over the ice and snow. The nearly six months I’d been in California had really spoiled me for Wisconsin winters. I didn’t know how anyone lived like this.
The store wasn’t very busy for the day after Christmas, but I supposed no one was feverishly trying to return gifts to a grocery store and most had probably purchased the food they needed the day before the holiday. I’d scribbled a short list of necessary ingredients before leaving the house while Sophia teased me — it felt so good to be teased by her again that I didn’t even mind it — so I grabbed a basket from the front of the store and started with the first item.
I was halfway down the list and grabbing a box of spaghetti when I heard my name called. I turned, surprised to see Lisa at the other end of the aisle, cradling a loaf of whole wheat bread. She grinned and so did I, and we met in the middle of the aisle.
“Hi, Carter,” she said, and pulled me into a hug, careful to keep from crushing her bread. “I just can’t seem to stop running into you here.”
“Tell me about it,” I replied, chuckling a little. “How was your holiday?”
She shrugged. “It was good. I’m back at work tomorrow, though. No rest for the wicked, you know?” She smiled her best troublemaking grin, her lips dark red.
“I have another week before I’m due back, but this weather is a challenge.”