by Aubrey Irons
Goddamn I missed this.
She’s perfect - a fucking goddess laid out before me. She’s so damn wet, and so ready, that same look on her face that got me harder than stone years ago. It’s innocence, and yet so viscerally on fire - this cock-throbbing mix of sweet and sexy that has my blood roaring in my ears.
How the hell did I leave this.
I almost want to scream it out loud right there, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. The past is the past, and all I care about in this moment is her - here and now.
I can’t hold back any more. My mouth dips to taste her, and it’s like heaven. She’s as sweet as I remember, as honeyed and perfect as I’ve dreamt about a thousand times. I drag my tongue through her soft folds, moving over every inch of her until I find the hard little nub of her clit. I tease her there, loving the way her moans drip from her lips.
Loving her scent, her taste, her sounds - the way she moves.
The softness as my tongue strokes through her lips.
I’m relentless in my teasing, swirling my tongue around her clit again and again, letting her buck her hips against my mouth. I push two fingers into her, curling them up and forward and stroking that spot inside as she starts to go to pieces for me. I’m coaxing and dragging the orgasm from her. And as much as I want to drag it out all fucking night, I’ve gone entirely too long without seeing her come for me.
“Silas-”
My name falling from those pillow lips of hers has my cock straining in my pants. But this is about her. This about shattering her world and reminding her what I know she’s gone without these eight years.
I stroke my fingers in and out, gently sucking her clit between my lips as I swirl it mercilessly with my tongue. Her legs tighten around my ears, her fingers pulling hard at my hair and her whole body arching off the lawn chair.
“I’m- I’m going to-”
She cries out when she comes, her whole body seizing up and bucking against me. Her breath comes staggered and shattered as she melts into me, her honey coating my tongue and her body going limp for me.
I linger another minute, making her moan as she struggles for breath, my tongue dragging lazy circles across her pussy until she’s dragging me up.
“Jesus, Silas-”
“Silas! You out here?” The sound of the backdoor banging open and her brother’s voice has us scrambling apart.
She jumps from the chair and grabs for her clothes, her face red and hot and her eyes darting wildly to the staircase down from the roof.
Fuck.
I yank my shirt back over my head, feeling my own heart racing a million miles an hour as I turn back to her.
“Stay up here, I’ll deal with him.”
I start to leave, but before I know it, I’m stopping and turning back to her. And I kiss her once more, pulling her against me and feeling her body sink into me as I sear my lips to hers.
I pull away and turn to grab my beer from the ground near my chair, but her hand touches my arm.
“Silas-”
I turn back to see her eyes wild and hot, her lips parted like she’s about to say something.
But she doesn’t.”
“Dude, you out here?”
Her whole face changes as she shakes her head. “Go!” she whispers urgently.
I lock my eyes with her for one more final second before I whirl away and head for the stairs.
Chapter Twenty
Silas
I clear my throat as I climb down the rickety metal stairs from the roof down to the ally behind O’Donnell’s.
“Hey.”
Rowan glances up and grins as he shakes my head. “Stealing my beer again?”
“Same old, same old, man.” I wink. “Old habits.”
I’m doing my damnedest to keep causal, trying to ignore the roaring of my pulse in my ears, the lingering sounds of her moans in my head. I can still feel her skin in my fingertips. I can still taste her on my tongue.
Rowan eyes me. “Listen, man. Speaking of same old, same old.”
I swallow thickly as he shakes his head.
“Look, you and I are good, you know that right?”
I nod. I do know that. He’s the only one that ever got what happened that night, since he was there. And if he hated me for what happened, I’d be okay with that, because I know the crash and the fallout from that was better than bringing him into what that night turned into.
I might have derailed his life, but I made sure it didn’t end that night.
“What happened…” he trails off and looks away. “It happened. I’m okay with it, you know.”
“I couldn’t let you come that night, Rowan.”
He gives me a wry smile. “I know.” He shrugs. “Dude, hockey wasn’t my thing anyways.”
I raise a brow. “Buddy, you were all-state.”
He smirks and takes a sip from the beer in his hand. “There’s no bad blood there, you have to know that.”
I nod, clinking my beer against his when he raises it my way. “I know that.”
“But.”
He looks at me sharply.
“Look, you being back here in Shelter Harbor isn’t easy either.”
Yeah, no shit.
“Lot’s changed, Silas.”
“I know.”
He looks at me sharply. “Do you? Look, what you did for me is enough for me to even look past what you did to my sister.”
We lock eyes for a moment, the unspoken staying that way. He doesn’t know about the marriage, obviously. But he knows what we meant to each other, and he knows that I hurt her when I left. The whole damn Hammond family knows that.
“You might be back, and I might have asked you to come back.” He levels his eyes at me. “Make sure stealing beers from the cooler here is the only habit you pick back up.”
“Jesus, Rowan,” I growl. “I don’t do shit like that anymore.” I square my jaw at my friend. “Like you said, a lot’s changed.”
“I know, buddy, but you need to know that I stuck my neck out vouching for you to come here for this.” He points at me. “Stay away from Declan and all that shit, alright?”
I narrow my eyes at him and he put his hands up as he grins. “Hey, that’s it. Had to say it, but that’s the last I’ll say on that.”
I nod. “So we’re good?”
“Yeah,” he grins. “We’re good.”
I turn to head back inside the bar when he stops me.
“Oh, and Silas?”
“Yeah?”
His eyes narrow slightly. “It’d probably be best if you stayed the fuck away from my sister, too.”
Oops.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ivy
The house is utterly silent and sleeping when I wake up abruptly a few nights later.
I frown as I glance at the greenish-blue light of my old alarm clock, still sitting on my bedside table. I’m about to close my eyes again, when there’s a sharp knocking sound against my bedroom window.
I blink, sitting up a little more in bed. I’m awake now, but it’s not like I was really sleeping all that peacefully before anyways.
Because I’m still thinking of the night before.
I’m still reeling from that kiss that brought me right back to where I’d been years before. The one that turned back the clock and dragged me right back to the girl I was back then. And suddenly, for the first time in forever, a night like that had been perfect.
Until the reality of what I’d just allowed to happen knocked the wind from me. It was hearing Silas and Rowan talking about that night from where I was still hiding up on the roof. It was remembering and suddenly reliving that night that lifted the veil of the now away from it all.
And that’s when I realized I was making the same stumbling, stupid decisions I’d made years ago, as if nothing had changed.
Because that’s what Silas Hart does to me, apparently. He kisses the sense right out of me.
By the time he made it back to that roof, I was pushi
ng past him - shaking my head and offering no words as I ran down the steps from the roof and then all the way back home.
And now I’m back to where I was. Bitter, confused, angry.
Ready to fall into his arms.
Or hit him.
Or kiss him.
I don’t actually know.
The sound comes again a moment later, a small clacking sound against the pane.
I frown, stepping out of bed and moving to the dark window. Hesitantly, I open it and glance down.
Of course.
It’s Silas. Silas standing there with a smug look on his face and a handful of pebbles in his hand.
“Are you kidding me?” I hiss.
Jesus this is just like high school. This is exactly what he used to do.
He grins up at me. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sleeping.”
“Doesn’t look like it.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re going to wake my dad.”
He grins. “Never did before,” he whispers. “And I think we were way louder back then.”
I blush bright red.
Back then, when Silas would literally scale the drainpipe to the porch roof under my other window so he could sneak inside.
He’s right, we were way louder, however hushed we tried to be,
“Go away!” I hiss.
He makes a face.
“Come down.”
“No, Si-”
“Shhh!” he shushes me with an exaggerate gesture. “You’re going wake your pa-”
“Oh shut up,” I mutter. “Hang on I need to get dressed.”
“You’ll have zero complaints here if you don’t.”
I can feel the rush again, thinking of the roof of O’Donnell’s from the other night. I duck back into my room, and I can feel my heart beating as I check my hair in the mirror, opting to let it down as I slip on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.
I frown, peeling the t-shirt off in favor of a much sexier tank top. And part of me feels ridiculous trying to preen like this for Silas, but you know what they say about old habits.
A minute later, I’m closing the kitchen door quietly behind me as I tiptoe barefoot around the side of the house.
“Hey.”
He looks up at me and grins. “You’re still good at that, you know.”
“At what?”
“Making sneaking out look good.”
My cheeks redden in the darkness.
“C’mon.”
“Where are we going exactly?”
“A drive.”
I raise a brow, and he grins almost sheepishly.
Yeah, we both know what that used to mean.
“I literally just mean a drive,” he says with a small chuckle. “I think I actually missed this town.”
I furrow my brow. “I’m barefoot.”
“Look, I’m not taking you on a date or anything.” He winks at me. “Come on, Slimy.”
“Where’s your truck?”
“Parked around the corner.”
I smirk. “Guess I’m not the only one who remembers how to sneak out of the Hammond castle.”
The truck is familiar when I climb in, the same vintage-y leather smell, the same cracked radio, the same choking engine sound as he cranks it on. We drive though the neighborhoods, saying nothing as the street lights wash over us and the houses slip past.
Silas takes us into town, driving down Main Street, which is actually empty and devoid of tourists this time of night. We turn down Commercial Street by the pier, past the empty tourist shops, the whale-watching stand shuttered for the evening.
We follow the street down until it starts to leave the downtown area, the buildings thinner as it gives way to trees and then tall grass as we pull around to the shore road. After another minute, Silas starts to pull over and off the road into a parking lot.
I frown. “Where are we-”
But then I get it, knowing exactly where we are.
Willow Sands - the tourist-choked beach by day, and apparently totally empty at night.
I actually haven’t been here in years.
We step out of the car, breathing in the warm, salty Atlantic summer air blowing off the ocean up the beach. Silas grabs a six-pack and a handful of blankets from the back of the truck before we head down the trail through the tall grass down to the dark beach.
It’s like clockwork.
It’s like habit, coming back here.
We find a spot by one of the old driftwood logs that doesn’t look like it’s changed at all since high school. Silas tosses the blankets down before we settle onto them, cross-legged and leaning back against the wood.
He hands me a beer.
“Kinda crazy how nothing’s changed, isn’t it?”
I shoot him a look, and he raises a single brow.
“The town, I mean.” He shrugs. “I don’t know, I guess I figured I’d find strip malls and a fucking Walmart when I got back here for some reason.”
“There’s a Starbucks now, apparently. Out on Reed Road.”
He makes a face.
“Yeah, seriously. Watch out, this town’s on the up.”
He laughs as he raises his beer. “Well, cheers to Shelter Harbor finally getting itself on the fucking chain coffee-retail map.”
I snort a laugh as I clink my bottle to his before taking a sip.
This is easy. It’s easy to lapse into this sort of rapport with him. So easy that the first beer goes easy, but I hesitate when he passes me a second.
He shrugs as he starts to pull it away. “No problem.”
“You know what, sure.”
What am I doing?
I’m alone, on a deserted beach, with Silas Hart.
And I’m drinking.
What good do I possibly think could happen from this?
“Remember those bonfires we used to have down here?”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, stupid high school parties. Someone always ended up puking or naked.”
He laughs.
“God, or truth or dare.”
He grins. “Hey, I loved playing that.”
I give him a look. “Yeah, because you always took the dare.”
“Yep,” he winks at me.
I shrug. “Well, we could play now.”
Silas eyes me. “Well, well, well, Hammond.”
“What?”
He grins. “Nothing, you’re just not really a truth or dare type girl.”
I shrug casually. “You don’t know that.”
“I thought I did.”
“Well maybe I’ve changed.”
He eyes me for a second, half-smirking, before he nods. “Fine. Truth or dare.”
“No fair!” I push his arm, grinning. “I’m going first.”
He laughs. “Be my guest.”
“Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
I blink, surprised, and he grins. “Weren’t expecting that, were you.”
I wasn’t.
But I shrug it off as causally as I can.
“Did you ever kill anyone while you were way?”
My eyes go wide, taken aback at my own words, and I bring my hand to my mouth.
“Ohmygod, I’m so sorry! That-”
“Wow, Ivy,” he chuckles. “You got deep on the first round there.”
I shake my head still covering my mouth. “That’s none of my business, God, I’m sorry that was a stupid-”
“No,” he laughs. “Jesus Christ, no.” He shrugs. “Got in some fights, but no, Ivy. I’ve never killed anyone.”
He gives me a look as he grins and sips his beer, shaking his head.
“Truth or dare, Debbie Downer.”
I poke at the sand by my feet with a finger.
“Truth.”
“Ever thought of me while you were masturbating?”
My face goes bright red as I jerk my head up to stare at him.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Well shit! You asked me if I commi
tted fucking murder!”
My face goes red.
“Ivy…” he teases, grinning wickedly at me as he wags his eyebrows.
“I…I don’t know,” I mutter.
“It’s truth or dare, Ivy.”
I look away sipping at my beer.
“Maybe.”
He chuckles. “Ivy-”
“Okay fine, yes.”
He’s silent, and when I turn back, he’s smirking at me smugly, his hand pushing through his hair.
“Oh yeah?”
I scowl at him. “Yeah, and it was awful.”
He laughs, his eyes dipping over me as his brows shoot up again.
“Oh shut up.” I stick my tongue out at him. “Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Again?”
“I’m full of surprises.”
“Fine. Have you?”
“Have I what.”
I blush, almost not believing that I’m actually asking him this.
“Ever, you know, thought of me when you…” I trail off as he meets my eye.
“All the time.”
I look away, my face hot. But when I turn back, he’s still right there, looking right at me.
“Well then…” I mumble, swallowing thickly.
Silas smiles. “Truth or dare.”
I don’t think I can take what he tosses my way next in the truths department.
“Ugh, fine. Dare.”
His lips curl devilishly. “You sure about that?”
No.
“Yep,” I say defiantly.
He shrugs, leaning back against the log behind him.
“I dare you strip down and go skinny dipping.”
My jaw drops. “I will not!”
“Hey, you said dare.”
“Yeah, but it’s dark!”
“I’ll go with you if you want.”
The smirk on his face says he’s only half kidding.
Actually, I don’t think he’s kidding at all.
“No way.”
“Ivy-”
I can feel my whole face go red.
“Okay, okay. Fine.”
I stand and start to reach for the button of my shorts when I glare at him. “Turn away.”
“Nothing I haven’t seen before, you know.”
“Watch it.”
He grins. “Fine.”
He turns his head as I slip my shorts down and pull the tank-top over my head. I toss my bra down before covering my breasts with my arm.