The red fogged swelled. “I will not smile and nod while my daughter soils herself with that low-life filth!”
Elaine recoiled, eyes wide. “Ben! Control yourself!”
Ben flung his empty liquor glass at the wall. It hit a framed family portrait of the three of them, cracking the glass. Broken glass scattered over the Persian rug below. “You’re ready to roll over? Let her flush herself down a toilet at the age of twenty-two? You’re her mother, Elaine. How could you think that way?”
“Ben, you’re overreacting. I simply said that he wasn’t such a—”
“He was raised by a goddamn psychopath!” he yelled. “He’s twisted. Do you want to breed that into your family line, Elaine? Because I don’t.”
She backed away toward the door, horrified. “Ben.” Her voice had a nervous quaver. “You’re forgetting something fundamental. You can’t stop her.”
“Oh, I’ll put a stop to it, all right.”
“How?” she demanded.
Fear grew in her eyes as the silence after her question got heavier.
“Oh, Ben,” she whispered. “You wouldn’t do anything illegal, would you? Because that’s a point of no return, you know. We’ve talked about that.”
“Don’t be melodramatic,” he snapped. “I need to think, and you’re not helping. Go away. And fucking knock before you come into my office again. We’ve talked about that, too. Remember, Elaine? Boundaries? They go both ways.”
He pushed her out the door, but Elaine just stood there, holding her ground. “Do not do anything stupid, Ben,” she said. “You’ve reached your quota.”
He slammed the door shut between them to block out the fear in her eyes.
7
Demi tossed her knapsack into the back seat of the Monster and got in. Eric pulled her into a passionate, sensual kiss before she could say a word.
Brazen seduction, right out in front of everyone. He felt so good. His lips were soft and hot against hers. Tasting her, coaxing her to open. Making her boneless, breathless.
His kiss felt urgent. As if he were trying to persuade her of something, with all his wiles. Hah. As if she weren’t already convinced. She was so completely hooked by him.
A horn honked as the car went by. She heard snickering and the occasional shocked gasp as people passed the open car window, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was that shining connection. The wild excitement. Terrified joy spreading through her whole being, filling her up. Flowing over like a fountain. So hot. So sweet.
Too soon. Cool it, girl. Calm it down. These feelings. They are out of hand.
Someone thumped the hood of the car. “Get a room,” a guy called out.
Eric pulled away, breathing hard. “Oh, man. Sorry. I’m like dry tinder. Go up like a torch as soon as I touch you. Hey…we could, you know.”
“Could what?” She couldn’t follow his train of thought. Her wits were scrambled.
“Get a room. Like the guy said. It’ll take us maybe forty minutes to get to the place I wanted to show you. There’ll still be some sun on the water. But if you don’t feel like hiking, we could just drive up to the Ponderosa Motel at Granger Valley, or anywhere else you want, and just loll on a bed together. That would rock, too. You decide.”
She pressed her hand against his shirt, which was hot and damp. “I’ve gotten attached to the romantic secret waterfall fantasy.”
“Me, too. But now I’m attached to the hotel room, too. That can be our next tryst.”
“Great.”
He took the turn-off to the road leading up Kettle River Canyon, and she was taken aback. “Wait. Isn’t this the way up to GodsAcre?”
“Yeah, but we’re stopping well before that and hiking down to the water,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’m not taking you anywhere near that place. My brothers and I don’t go up there. For love or money.”
She shivered as if a cold wind had blown through her. “I should think not.”
After a few miles of the Monster bouncing and shuddering over the rough, narrow road, Eric pulled off onto an even smaller and rougher logging road, thickly overgrown with long mountain grass. He parked the Monster in a grassy space behind a stand of sapling firs, and smiled at her. “Ready to walk?”
“Hell, yeah. I’m so curious.”
Eric insisted on shouldering her bag along with his own, and led her onto an almost invisible deer trail that snaked through the trees down the hillside to the Kettle River. It roared and leaped between deep fissures of rock, and they jumped from one huge, flat slab of water-smoothed rock to another. At one point, they hopped all the way across to the other side of the river. It was too noisy to talk.
They came to the mouth of a smaller torrent that drained into the Kettle River. From there, Eric led her up that stream and into a mossy canyon that got increasingly taller, more shadowy. Dripping, secret and hushed, like a magical portal to another world.
They walked alongside the stream until there was no longer any place to walk, just steep walls hung with moss and green feathery tufts of foliage. The narrow stream rushed between, swift and silent and crystal clear, the water a startling pale blue-green.
“We have to go into the water to continue on,” he said. “Put anything you’re wearing that you need to keep dry into your bag. I’ll put it all up on my head.”
“It’s that deep?”
“Up to my chest at least,” he said. “And I’ve gone in when it was neck deep.”
Huh. That would be over the eyebrows for her.
Demi had a self-conscious moment when she stripped off the tank and cut-offs she’d put on after her shift, revealing the skimpy moss green bikini. She’d chosen it this morning for the boob-hoisting balcony bra-effect, and the French cut bottom with ribbon ties had looked very come-hither in the mirror. But in this remote place full of shadows and murmuring water, it made her feel naked and vulnerable.
Eric’s hot gaze heated her right up. He pulled off his work boots and clothes, revealing an impressive hard-on that made her face burn. Her come-hither bathing suit had done its appointed job. He was stiff and thick and full. Ready for action.
Her breath got all choppy and uneven just looking at him. Whew.
Eric packed his stuff and hers both into his battered bag, balanced the whole thing on top of his head, and waded into the stream. He made only a sharp intake of breath as the water closed around his chest and turned to her, holding out his hand.
She took it, and let him tug her in after him. “Oh, God,” she moaned. “So cold.”
Her hair fanned out around her on the surface of the water. Eric let go of her hand, stroking a long curling lock of it slowly and reverently before taking her hand again.
“No distractions,” he said. “The sun won’t last forever. Let’s race for the light. Twilight comes early this far down in the canyons.”
The current wasn’t as overwhelming as the larger, noisier Kettle River, but it was still strong, and she couldn’t touch the bottom. She swam along one-armed, but they made progress only because she was being towed by Eric. The shock of cold soon faded, and after a few minutes, she felt smooth pebbles and sand beneath her feet again.
She climbed up into a tumbled heap of boulders and stared around, astonished.
They were inside a big granite bowl, one side of which was cloven by a waterfall. Not huge or high, but the stream of water refracted off all the many crystallized striations of stone, creating a dreamy, flounced chiffon effect like a fairy’s diaphanous skirt.
She was enchanted. Yellow water-loving flowers bloomed around the pool, wet with spray. The sides of the canyon were carpeted with thick moss and hanging plants. The last rays of sun slanted through trembling green leaves, making rainbows in the mist.
“I’ve never seen anything so perfect,” she said.
Eric looked pleased with himself. “I know, right? Haven’t seen it in years. I don’t know if it has an official name, but I don’t really care. Anton and Mace and I named it Lindsay F
alls, for our mom. She died a few months after we found it.”
Demi wound her fingers into his. “I’m sorry,” she said. “When was that?”
“The winter before the fire,” he said. “I was fifteen. Pneumonia. Just a stupid cough that wouldn’t go away. She kept on saying she was fine. Until she wasn’t.”
“That’s awful,” she said.
“Yeah, it was bad. The beginning of the end for us.”
“Yeah? How so?” She waited for more.
He shook his head. “GodsAcre wasn’t always a nightmare. Back in the old days, back when Jeremiah was relatively lucid, there were good times, good things. But after Mom died, he lost it. He’d never been what you might call stable, but she grounded him, as much as anyone could. When she was gone, he came apart.”
“Was he your real dad?” she asked, timidly.
“Not biologically. We moved to GodsAcre when I was four, and my mom hooked up with Jeremiah pretty soon after that. But he’s the only father I remember, besides Otis. Otis definitely counts. He’s a ballbreaker, but he’s a great guy.”
“Yeah, Otis is pretty awesome,” she agreed.
“He’s pissed at me right now,” Eric told her. “For going after you. Thinks I’m miles out of my league.”
She was startled. “Good God. Otis knows about us?”
Eric laughed. “Everyone knows about us.”
She almost told him that she was in the same boat, but quickly thought better of it. This was not the moment to tell him how her parents thought he wasn’t good enough.
Screw them. They would not ruin this for her.
But Eric was like an antenna, picking up every thought that flashed through her mind. “You, too?” he asked. “I take it your folks are less than thrilled about me.”
She shrugged. “They have a narrow vision of what my life should be, and you don’t fit into it. But to be honest, I don’t fit into it either. So screw it. I can’t please them no matter what I do, and I’m not going to hurt myself trying.”
There was a moment of silence, punctuated only by birdsong and rushing water. The ray of sunlight sliced through the rippling water. Tiny white butterflies wafted around. Blue dragonflies hovered over the surface of the water.
Demi reached behind herself. Unhooked her bathing suit top. Tossed it onto the rock next to the bag. She just stood there, breasts bare, cheeks pink.
“Fortunately, none of the haters are here,” she said. “We’re alone.”
Eric swallowed several times, staring at her. “Demi,” he said. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
She studied the streak of angry color on his cheekbones. His cock, straining against the wet boxers. Every detail of his fabulous erection clearly visible.
She stepped out of the bikini bottom, tossed it down to join the top, and flaunted herself shamelessly, in all her naked glory. She’d never felt so brazenly sure she wanted this. She wanted to provoke him, inflame him, drive him fucking crazy.
It worked. They came together without a word, kissing ravenously. Cool wet skin to cool wet skin. Blazing heat just beneath. She ran her hands over his shoulders. She could barely get a grip, they were so taut and thickly muscled.
She wound her arms around his neck and hung on for dear life. The magic seized them, like it always did. She knew that she should slow this down. Put the brakes on.
She couldn’t. Not when her heart was opening up like this. The soft twisting ache, feelings coming alive, bursting into full color inside of her. Body and soul, calling to him straight from the heart. No lies. Nothing hidden. Nothing held back.
Hearts didn’t lie. They couldn’t.
But they could break.
She shoved that random unwanted thought away as Eric lifted his head. “Come to the edge of the pool,” he urged. “Let me show you the perfect place.”
The rocks around the pool were ground and polished by eons of winters and tumultuous springs, polishing the rocks to silky smoothness. The one he led her to was wonderfully warm, with all the day’s stored sunshine in it. She perched on the edge, sliding her legs into the water. Eric got into the pool and came around to face her, hip deep.
He placed his hands on her knees, stroking them, asking a question with his body and waiting for an answer, though they both knew the answer already. It felt like a ceremony. The careful reverence of his slow touch. His patient waiting.
Enough. She opened her legs and clasped his waist with them. Reached down to stroke the stiff, dark red cockhead poking out of the waistband, right above the surface of the water. Gripping, stroking. There was pre-come on the tip. She made her hand slick with it, rubbing his blunt tip slowly in her palm. Squeezing and milking his thick shaft.
They groaned against each other’s mouths as they kissed, shaking with need.
Eric sank down into the water, pressing his face to her breast. He slid his tongue around her nipple and followed with deep, tender suckling pulls, drawing pleasure up from inside her, endless shining waves of it.
The sweet sensations sharpened and grew. She hung onto his shoulders, gasping for air, until everything coalesced into a blinding flash of pleasure.
It throbbed through her. Deeply, endlessly. Melting her.
When her eyes opened, they were wet. She blinked at the smeary blur of blue, green, gold, black. The cliffs were tinted with sunset gold. Pine and fir ringed the edge.
She wiped the tears away and pulled him closer, pressing her face against his head. Nuzzling and kissing his thick, buzzed-off hair. It was damp and salty.
“Eric,” she whispered. “Wow. That was crazy wonderful.”
“Agreed.” He lifted his head, awestruck. “You’re so responsive.”
“It’s you,” she informed him, and then clung to his upper arms as he shifted her, pushing her gently onto her back. The heat of the smooth rock was a caress against her skin. “What are you doing?”
He lifted her legs out of the water and put her heels against the edge of the rock, spreading her knees. “Pushing my luck,” he said.
Her breathless laughter cut off as he sank down between her legs and put his mouth to her.
Oh, he was so good. Amazingly good, pressing light, flirtatious kisses against her mound while he petted her pussy lips with his fingertips, making her crazy with shivering excitement before he teased her pussy lips open, stroking and caressing. Sinking his finger slowly inside her slick channel while he ran his tongue over her clit. Back and forth, flicking and fluttering. Sucking on it tenderly, running his tongue around…and around it.
He was so aware of everything she felt. Every stroke, every pull, every lapping stroke of his tongue was exactly what she desperately needed, and then somehow it changed into something still more perfect. And again. And again. Tireless. Relentless.
He sucked tenderly on her clit and thrust his fingers inside her, finding with unerring skill all the inside places to stroke and pet, then doubling down and loving on them with passionate skill. Deeper when she needed it. Faster, when she craved it. Driving her straight for it—oh please…please.
Yes.
The climax was so huge, it made the world disappear in a blaze of wild perfection.
When the sensations eased back down to a shivery glow, she opened her eyes. She had no idea how long he had been waiting for her.
She smiled at him. “Sex god,” she whispered.
He looked pleased. “It’s amazing with you. It just takes me over. I can just…I don’t know. Feel you. Like we’re connected. I’ve never felt anything like it. It’s magic.”
“Aw. I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“Hell, no,” he said forcefully. “By no means do I say that to all the girls.”
She traced his gorgeous cheekbone with her finger. “What about you?”
He rubbed his face against her hand like a cat being petted. “What about me? I’m blissing out. I’ve got your sweet taste on my mouth. I’ve got you wet and wide open, trusting me with your body. Coming for me
like crazy. Doesn’t get any better than that.”
“No?” She propped herself up onto her elbows and spotted the condom he’d left lying on the rock beside them. She picked it up and flapped it at him. “You tease.”
The flush in his face deepened. “I didn’t mean to tease. I just didn’t want you to feel pressured. I want you to be ready. Whenever it happens is fine.”
“Now would be good,” she told him. “I’m so ready, Eric. Believe me, I wouldn’t be lying here bare naked with my legs wrapped around you if I wasn’t.”
Eric took the condom from her and ripped it open. “You want me, you got me.” He pulled her up until she was sitting and handed it to her. “Do the honors. I stand ready.”
She seized his penis. So hot. Pulsing in her grip. It gave her an incredible thrill. A sense of raw power, knowing how much pleasure she could give his big, gorgeous body. How intensely he wanted to be inside her.
He squeezed his eyes shut, head dropped back as she milked him with her hand. Every slow, twisting stroke dragging a groan from his throat. Tendons stood out on his neck. His grip on her waist tightened. “Demi.” His voice was pleading.
“You like it? Want some more?” She ran her thumb around the blunt tip of his penis, spreading silky pre-come round. Making him slick, so she could pump harder.
His stiff cock pulsed with eagerness in her hands.
“You’re gorgeous,” she told him. “All of you.” She punctuated her statement with a bold, squeezing stroke that forced out more pre-come, dipped her fingers in it and brought them to her lips. “Yum,” she whispered. “Sweet. Salty. Hot. Perfect.”
“You, too,” he said hoarsely.
She twisted her fist around his shaft. “Switch places with me and let me give you a taste of your own medicine,” she urged him. “You won’t regret it.”
“After,” he said. “I want to come inside you first.”
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