by Sosie Frost
“Yeah.”
“And that bulge back there?”
“Platonic bulge.”
“Sounds painful.”
“I’ve learned to live with it.”
Her smile would have boiled the water. I reached for a new wash cloth and dunked it into the bubbles. She lolled her head to the side, and I lathered the sensitive skin around her neck.
“And now you’re washing my back…just as a friend?”
“I live to serve.”
“So, if this isn’t seduction…” She wouldn’t turn without revealing more of her perfection to me. I willed every last bubble to pop. “What exactly are your moves?”
“Damn. I’ve got so many.”
“And how many would work on me?”
“Just one.” I murmured. “Just a kiss.”
“You’ve kissed me before.”
“Not the way I should’ve kissed you.”
I envied the washcloth as it caressed the softness of her skin. With a bit of encouragement, I moved her arm from her body and rewarded her bravery with a gentle stroke of the cloth down to her fingertips. She sighed and nestled deeper against me, the swell of her breasts barely peeking over the water.
“You’ve always kissed me good,” she whispered.
“Nah. This would have been a real kiss. Just you and me. A gentle touch. A million heartbeats. A kiss so good no fire would’ve ever separated us.”
She didn’t tense as the washcloth crossed over her chest.
Over the swell of her breast.
Tickling her hardened nipple.
Then below.
She shivered against me. “Why didn’t you ever kiss me like that?”
I pressed my hand against her belly, the washcloth teasing her with a slow massage. “I knew what would happen.”
“You must have known I fell for you.”
“That didn’t make it right. You weren’t supposed to be with me.”
“Says who?”
“Your brothers.”
She hummed. “They’re just overprotective.”
“They were right to be. I was a bad influence. On Tidus. On you.”
“I hope you weren’t doing these things with Tidus.”
I nipped at her neck. Her giggle transformed into a mew.
“Even he knew I was no good for you. The things I might’ve done to you…”
Did she realize she’d ground back against me? “Like what?”
The washcloth drifted lower. Cassi’s breath quivered in a quiet coo. How could such a tiny, sweet noise drive me so crazy? My cock twitched, pressing against her back. The heat didn’t make this any easier.
I dropped the washcloth.
Held her tighter.
And my fingers demonstrated just how much I’d missed her.
“I might have touched you, Sassy.” Regret punished us both. “Might have teased you in all sorts of special, beautiful places that weren’t mine to touch.”
Her legs opened—not enough to sate five years of denied passion, but just enough to slip two fingers over her slit and revel in the velvet softness. The water only made her slicker.
So fucking tempting.
I parted her folds and circled that sensitive, perfect button. She flinched as my fingers rolled over her, but her head sunk against my chest. I claimed that chance to give her every pleasure I’d imagined since I last held her in my arms.
Too long ago.
“I might have teased you,” I whispered. “Petted and stroked and kissed all those secret spots a good girl like you kept hidden from a man like me.”
Her lips parted. “Kissed?”
My mouth watered at the thought. “Kissed. Licked. Sucked. There’s not a part of you I wouldn’t have devoured. You would’ve had to fight me off, Sassy. Once I finally got a taste of you, I would have been insatiable.”
My fingers circled her clit quicker, pulsing a quiet rhythm with the softness of her breathing.
“I never told you how beautiful you are,” I said. “Not back then. Not now. Never told you how much I wanted you. How much you deserved someone to hold you…” I wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her closer. “Touch you.” She glanced back to me. “Take you.”
I captured her kiss and overwhelmed her with quick flicks of pleasure to her quivering folds. The heat destroyed me. She wasn’t just ready—she was eager. Hot and frustrated and so desperate for my finger, my lips, my cock that she ground back against my teasing hand.
“You shouldn’t have left me…” Cassi’s words broke with quick and sudden gasps.
“I couldn’t have stayed.”
“We could have fixed it then.”
“Can’t we fix it now?”
She stared up at me, eyes wide, body trembling on the verge of absolute pleasure. “I…I don’t know. I thought it was over.”
“We were never together, Cassi. Give me a chance to do it right.”
“So much has happened, Rem.”
“So forget the past.”
“Can you?”
She twisted for me, pinching her eyes shut, gripping my arm. A sudden shudder quaked her body. Then a second. I rubbed her clit harder, watching as each sharp graze wracked her in dozens of shivers. She gasped my name. Clutched my hand. Braced herself against the tub.
And I delivered her every passion and pleasure I’d promised.
But it was too late.
She’d lived through five years of lies. Five years of silence. Five years of idiotic regret.
I’d lost her.
And here I thought I was protecting her. Protecting her family. Protecting myself.
Secrets and lies and deceit ruined everything—including how her heart might have softened for me.
“Rem…” Cassi breathed my name and shook her head, still shaking from my touch. “I…”
I didn’t need to hear it. Couldn’t handle the words. The apologies. The end of it all.
“I’m going to bed,” I said. “Enjoy your bath.”
“Wait…”
I pushed out of the tub, hating the hardness that made wrapping a towel around my waist impossible.
I didn’t look back, couldn’t see what I was losing once again, what the past had taken from me.
What good was hiding the truth when I was the one getting hurt?
12
Cassi
This was a mistake.
I escaped from the tub with shaky legs.
This would be a terrible mistake.
I wrapped only a robe around my body, dripping with soap and desire and every aching urge to be close to Rem once more. Wrapped in his arms. Surrendering to his touch, his voice, the promises we never made and would never have kept.
Rem wasn’t in the house. I grabbed my phone and set the nest cam to keep an eye on the kids, both sound asleep. That meant no interruptions. Nothing to stop me now.
He’d gone outside. Rem leaned against the porch railing, staring into a cool, dark night with only the moonlight above. The thick canopy of the trees rustled with a quiet breeze. Everything was still. Waiting. Listening.
But I had nothing to say.
Nothing that I hadn’t longed to speak and knew better than to voice.
He hadn’t put on a shirt, just barely had buckled his jeans. Droplets of water rolled over the muscles of his back. The drips teased low, chasing the colors of his tattoos before gathering at the hem of his jeans. His solid abs tightened as hard as the bulge in his jeans. He ran a hand along the trim of his beard.
His eyes stared—hungry, but so sad.
Why were we doing this to each other?
The teasing. The flirting. The denial.
It meant everything and nothing. It pulled us apart only to slam us together with unquenched need. He’d asked to forget the past, but it wasn’t the past that scared me. It was the future.
What would happen if I never let him close? If I never got over him?
What would happen if I walked away from this, our last c
hance?
This was a mistake.
I dropped my robe to the porch and kicked it away.
His gaze feasted over me, but he shook his head. “Cassi…”
I didn’t let him protest. Not now. Now when I knew what we both needed. More than words. More than excuses. More than stories about a past we should have shared.
The only thing that mattered was this moment.
And I wouldn’t let anything take it away from us.
I didn’t have to say a word. Rem was on me within a single breath. A ragged, guttural growl surged from his throat, and he took me in his arms.
I’d waited years for this kiss.
And I surrendered completely to it.
His lips nibbled over mine—a commanding and raging excitement that shuddered us both in a thrill of conquest. His hardness pressed into the bare skin of my belly. The thought sizzled through me, reigniting the pleasure still smoldering from the last explosion.
Nothing had ever felt as good or as right as his touch.
At least, nothing until now.
I’d waited far too long and lost entirely too much time. Tonight was ours, and the shadows of our past would forever fade in the glow of our passion.
He walked me backwards, aiming for the porch swing. I didn’t let him push me down. Not now. Not after the pleasure he’d already delivered to me. If I savored any more touches, kisses or teasing, I’d be lost in my own demanding need. The only thing I wanted was him—his taste, his desire, the feel of him finally in my hands, in my mouth, inside of me.
I pushed him down. He sat with a grin, all too eager and yet patient.
“You have no idea what you do to me, Cas.”
“I can take a guess.”
I unzipped his jeans and stared at the most wild, uncivilized part of him. I swallowed my own amazement. His hardness jutted upwards, thick and pulsing so intensely it must have been painful. I’d felt him in the tub, pressing against me, heated and raw.
How many times had he almost taken me now?
How many nights had he gone to bed just as demoralized, just as desperate and aching as me?
No more.
I knelt before him. Rem breathed a soft profanity.
“You don’t have…”
Oh, but I wanted to. I grinned and took his cock in my hands. First one I’d ever held, and the only one I’d ever wanted to touch. Rem flinched as I curled my hands around the base. He didn’t fit, even with both fists stacked.
That probably should have scared me away. But this curiosity would get me in far greater trouble.
I leaned down, unsure but encouraged by the rasping hiss of his breathing. My tongue darted out, circling the head of his cock. Rem swore. Good enough for me. Another lick. A soft kiss. I glanced up at him, voice a soft whisper.
“Am I doing this right?”
“There’s not a goddamned thing you could do wrong now.”
“So…this is good?” I popped the head in my mouth. Salty and warm. He tasted like raw, primal excitement, and his shiver traced over my own body and centered in my core. I mumbled over his length. “That’s what you like?”
“Fuck…”
I took that as a yes and dipped lower over his shaft.
How in the world was a girl supposed to take a man like him? He was thick. Hard. His cock was almost an angry, fierce spear of flesh. It pulsed in my mouth, waiting for a chance to strike a lot lower and far deeper. My tummy clenched. The wetness should have shamed me, but my body only did what came naturally when so close to this man.
This perfect, sexy man.
His body tensed, every muscle tight with a thrilling need. His abs flexed. His biceps flared as he gripped the chain of the porch swing with his huge, callused hands. Skilled hands. Hands that knew exactly where to touch me, how to tease me, and how to shatter me in a quick and unbelievably intense orgasm that should have left me in a puddle in the bathroom.
Except I wanted more.
I deserved more.
Five years of waiting. Of longing. Of wishing things had been different. But only a fool wished for change. If I wanted him—if I wanted the past we should have had and the future we both dreamed about—then I had to take it for myself.
I had to forgive him.
Or at least…forget what had happened.
One of these was far easier than the other with his cock in my mouth, his hands in my hair, and his groans filling me with desire.
His hardness twitched. A quick pulse shot through his body. Rem pushed me away, his smile a wicked and knowing tease.
“Need more than your mouth tonight, Cassi,” he said. “And I know you do too.”
He pulled me to my feet, but he didn’t let me stay still. He swept me into his arms and carried me to the porch railing, setting me down and spreading my legs so he could slip between.
“No more games,” he said. “No more imagining.”
“I want you,” I breathed.
“I’ve always needed you.” His finger trailed along my slit.
I didn’t hold back this time. The pleasure crashed over me, and I bit my lip to keep from groaning.
The slickness opened my petals, and he circled my clit once more
“But you’re…you waited,” he said.
“For you.”
“Are you sure you want to give me this?”
“I’ve always wanted it to be you.”
He stared down at me, voice hoarse. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Not true. We deserve this. Maybe just once. Maybe forever. It doesn’t matter.” I reached for him, my fingers tickling the tattooed sunflower over his heart. “Let’s have tonight. Now. You and me. Forget the past. Forget the future. Forget everything.”
Rem grinned. “There’s no way in hell you’ll ever forget this night.”
He kissed me, edging closer, drawing my hips towards him. His beard tickled my cheek as my head rolled back, granting him access to the soft skin of my neck. He nibbled along my collarbone and stroked himself. I flinched as the head of his cock teased my slit. The sensations burst through me.
“It’s…you’re…big.” I whispered. “Are you certain it’ll fit?”
“That’s the fun of it.”
Sure…but I was me, and he was…
Huge.
Rem had become a mass of muscle and strength and raw power born of the wilderness. He’d not only lived within nature, he’d conquered it. Nothing about him was tamed. His kisses were gentle, but that wasn’t him anymore. He’d lived a tough, hard life.
Now, he was rugged. Strong, fierce, and commanding. He stood before me more animal than man with a hardened cock and years of pent up aggression and desire that twitched the thick shaft jutting from between his legs.
“I’ve wanted you forever, Cas,” he said.
“Then take me. Make me yours.”
His grin faded. A dark sensuality masked his features, wild and ravenous. “If I take you, I won’t be letting you go. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Not ever.”
Nothing had ever sounded so wonderful. “I’m yours, Rem.”
“Waited forever to hear you whisper that.”
If this was a mistake, it was the best mistake I’d ever made.
Rem held me close with one arm, his other hand stroking the length of his pulsing cock. Once. Twice. He stared down at me with a quiet, possessive growl.
He pushed.
Slow at first. Oh, so slow and carefully. A gentle, tenacious pressure that opened me to him. Just a slight movement at first. He rubbed the head along my slick folds and moved his hips inward.
He filled me. Inch by inch, a dangerously intense pleasure of fullness that impaled me. I gasped, gripping his shoulders, his arms, any of the strong, knotted muscles that might have protected me from the delicious shivers racing through my core.
I tightened as my body ached with a sudden pinch.
Then…
Completeness.
His length slowly eased inside of me. Hi
s head. The shaft. Until finally our bodies met, slick with sweat and trembling in amazement. The entire length of him stretched me. My breath shuddered. My body ached and cried out and crashed again and again with a newfound confusion and excitement and dizzying sensation.
Too much?
Too big?
Yes and no. I needed more.
I craved a movement he hadn’t given. Instinct or greed? My hips bucked as I tried to emulate the motions I knew would come. In and out. Harder and quicker. Anything. But I earned no more than a mind-blowing inch.
“Rem…” My hoarse whisper shattered us both. “Please…”
He leaned in, capturing my kiss with a rugged, husky laugh. “Christ. Now that I have you, now that I’m inside you…fuck me, I don’t think I can move.”
“That’s no fair.”
“Neither are you…” His kiss turned feverish, frantic. “I could stay here forever. This close to you. This deep inside of you. Finally. After all this time…you’re mine.”
I arched into his hands as he explored the curves of my body. My heart raced, aching with every passing moment that frustration flexed my hips. I needed him as much as he needed me, but now I ached for something more. What’d he’d promised. What we both craved.
We’d waited for too long to be romantic.
Suffered alone for too many years to be gentle.
Denied ourselves too much pleasure to be cautious.
And together, as our bodies pressed and our kisses muffled our groans, we’d finally taken everything we’d ever wanted.
“Please…” I pleaded with my own desire. “Don’t hold back.”
“I’m barely holding on, Sassy.”
“More, Rem...”
With an agonizing tease, Rem pulled from me. Only a few inches. Only a brief crest of hips. But that was all he needed to drive inside me. The fierce size of him should have scared me, but I’d never felt so complete in my life.
A part of me had been missing for so long, filled by the part of him I’d so long denied.
Every trust became a promise. Every kiss the first truth we’d spoken in years. Every shivered bolt of pleasure, a fantasy come true.
I took him deeper, arching to let him within my tightness. My words panted. My breath trembled. Wrapped in each other arms, desperate for each other’s desire, we murmured words we’d never said and feelings that neither of us were ready to admit.