20
______________
Caleb
-now-
She made little sounds. Whimpers. Like fucking music to my ears. Damn, how did this happen? My brain was short-circuiting, wanting to speed up and slow down at the same time, urging me to take my mouth south, taste even more of her, while my dick was harder than Intermediate Accounting and wanted nothing more than to purge all the numbers.
I was stuck on her flawless breasts, giving them every bit of the focus I could manage while attempting to decide. I supposed it was punishment for not being prepared for this scenario. There had been no plan to stay overnight. I expected to be home already, imagining this very scene under the hot water of my shower, stroking myself while picturing these perfect breasts and her soft skin.
Fuck me. I was on the verge of nutting in my shorts just thinking about the reality of it.
She moaned and tugged at my hair, and my decision was made. There would be other times. For now, here out in the open, under the night sky for all the animals and maybe even a curious lurker within range to see, we were getting down to business.
I slid my hand to her shorts, unbuttoning. She took over quickly, undoing her own so I could get mine. We both shimmied for a few moments, kicking off the rest of our clothes. I moved back to her sweet lips, savoring the residual deliciousness of chocolate chip cookie lingering there. Her legs parted as my hand slid up her thigh, stopping only when I felt her warmth, trying to see without seeing, enjoying the feel of her trimmed hair. I wanted my face there. To breathe her in and taste her.
She moaned when I slid my finger over her, and I echoed the same reaction when I suddenly felt her hand wrap around my dick.
And that was when I remembered again that I hadn’t been fully prepared. “Shit,” I said, both as a statement of pleasure and anger at myself. “Celia, shit. Shit.” Her hand stroked down me once, twice …
“Shit,” I said again and broke away from her. “I need a condom.” After glancing around, I vaulted over the side of the truck buck naked with a hard-on that had the power to cut through all the limestone inside the quarry. Her cute giggle followed behind me.
Please. Please. Please.
I dug into the glove box, then the front and back console, then looked under the seats. It had been a long time since I’d had a stash in my truck. There was always the pull-out option, but I’d much rather—
“There’s one in my bag,” Celia said, making me stand upright and look around the doorframe. In the near blackness, I could barely see her face, but it seemed like her head was tilted.
“Thank God,” I said, lunging for her bag and rooting inside while more giggles met my ears. She was ready, and man, that made me feel even better.
I was back into the bed within ten seconds, kneeling at her feet.
Seeing her sprawled in the bed of my truck, shadowed in the night with only a faint glow from the stars and the distant lights of the lodge, had me choked up. “Wow.”
“What?” she whispered but made no move to cover herself. She was relaxed and comfortable, with me, with this.
“It’s just that I …” I had no words. As much as I wanted to express, I was speechless.
“Caleb …”
I ripped the wrapper, rolled that sucker on, and crawled between her legs, kissing her smooth stomach, taking soft nips of her flesh along the way up. She spread her legs wider as I settled in between them. Her hands splayed over my back, gripping, encouraging. After a long, deep kiss, I looked into those big eyes, angled my hips, then flexed forward, entering her as slowly as I could manage as she accepted me.
Her fingernails dug into my back and the most incredible sigh escaped her lips, expressing exactly what we both felt, the years slipping away, finally bringing us together. And it was so much more than I’d ever thought it could be.
“I want so much with you.” I kissed her neck then retreated from her for only a moment before pushing back inside in another long stroke.
“Yes. You …” She arched her back and rotated her hips, making me moan. “That’s the anything I want you to give me. Give me you.”
“You’ve always had me.” Another flex, another sigh. “You were always with me.” I kissed her lips then pushed myself up to stare into her eyes again. They watched me adoringly as I slammed my hips to her, harder this time. “Anytime I saw silky brown hair with a face hidden by a camera. Every time I saw a daisy.” My pace quickened, greedy with need, wanting to feel so much.
The comforter moved under us, sliding with every thrust, shifting us closer to the cab.
She squeaked a tiny laugh, lifted her arms, and braced her palms against the truck to keep her head from hitting.
I curled my back and dipped my face to her breasts, licking and sucking on a nipple. My muscles came alive, energized for her. I moaned onto her skin, and my hips worked harder.
“Oh, yes,” she murmured. “I … this …”
“You feel incredible,” I replied, cherishing her, never wanting the connection to end. “You are everything.”
Her breaths came faster, shorter with every thrust, and her whimpers grew louder, blending together into the sweetest and most erotic sound.
“Caleb. Caleb. Ah. I’m …”
She unraveled beneath and around me, her body clenching tight, sending me over the edge with her.
“Celia.” Her name was a strained breath as an orgasm took hold. “Fuck.” I dipped down slowly even though I wanted to collapse. But I didn’t want to hurt her. The truck was hard as hell. There was no way I’d crush her into it.
Her hands moved from their braced positions to my cheeks, stroking as I leaned down more for a kiss.
“Oh, ooh,” I mumbled as she shifted beneath me. She chuckled against my lips. So fucking sweet. “Are you all right?”
“More than,” she replied, sliding her hands down my neck and onto my shoulders.
“This wasn’t exactly comfortable. I promise I will make it up to you. Thoroughly.” I kissed her chastely before moving my lips to her neck. “I have plans that don’t include having to worry about peeping animals. So many plans. I need to taste all of you. My delicious daisy.”
“Does that make you the pushy bee?”
“Oh yeah. A thirsty carpenter bee,” I whispered then licked up her neck.
She shivered. Whether it was from the feeling or more from the warmth of sex dwindling away, the cool air registering once again, I backed away from her and grabbed the two thinner blankets, spreading them over her body before tying off the condom and jumping out of the truck to toss it in the trash.
When I crawled back onto the tailgate, she was sitting upright watching. “Are you still up for sleeping out here or do you want to get into the backseat?”
“No, this is good, but I need your heat.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She held open the blankets for me, and I slid inside and settled onto my back. Her body wrapped around me, head against my chest, arm and leg draped over me. I nuzzled my nose into her hair, inhaled, then released a contented sigh. Perfect. There was nothing better.
“Should we get dressed?” she asked, her voice sleepy, exhaustion setting in from the excitement of the day.
I yawned, feeling the hit too. “No fucking way.”
Her body shook against mine with a silent laugh. After a moment, she said, “I’m a little upset that you weren’t my first. I wish this had happened then.”
“Me too,” I agreed somberly. But instead of dwelling, I focused on the ridiculously accurate truth and added, “I would have given you the best four minutes of your life.” She laughed audibly this time. “And three of those would have been like watching a hilarious silent, Charlie Chapman style film titled The Boy and the Condom.”
Her body vibrated more, shaking the entire truck. After a huge gasping breath, she said, “Oh my God, stop!”
“Exactly what you would have said then.”
“You are such a liar. You had alread
y done it. You had experience.”
“So? Even if I had done it a thousand times, it would have been you. You, who could bring me to my knees with one look of your glorious eyes, one touch of your soft hands, one whisper from your lips. I would have died that night. I would have been so fucking happy, but I would have died inside you. I only lived tonight because I’ve been dreaming about it for so much longer.”
Her head shifted back so she could look at me. “You had me spinning, Caleb Samuels. You had me cussing a lot, and screaming with fright, but also spinning.”
I squeezed her in closer, drawing her face up and dipping mine to the side to meet her lips. “I would love to go for round two right now, but I think we should sleep since we have to see the sun rise and get you to work. Also, I’d probably break off my kneecaps.”
“Not if I’m on top.”
“Oh, Tarsier. Don’t tempt me or you’ll be missing work with me tomorrow … and maybe even all week.”
21
______________
Caleb
-now-
“Celia. Time to wake up,” I whispered into her ear, keeping her tucked inside my curl. Being her big spoon was the greatest. There was no hiding my morning wood pressed against her ass. I inhaled her hair again and squeezed my arm tighter, palming her breast.
That got a lovely moan in response. “It’s still dark.”
“Sunrise, we gotta see it. It’s on the list.”
“Did it specify in there that we had to stay up to watch the sunrise? I can’t remember.” She coughed a little to clear away the sleepy rasp in her voice.
“It doesn’t say. But we could do that another time on our own.”
“That sounds good.” With a slow turn, she lay on her back, her eyes blinking to focus on mine.
“Morning, beautiful.”
“Now I know you are a liar. I wake up with myself every day and there’s no way that—”
“It was always my favorite time to see you,” I cut off her words with my truth. “Whenever you stayed the night, I lived to see you in the morning. Sleepy eyes. Sleepy body.”
“You teased me every morning I was there. You’d swat my hair and call me feral.”
“Yeah, I did. I wanted so badly to have your hair in my face like this morning.”
“You should have told me something instead of teasing me.”
“I should have done a lot of things, but there’s no time to think about it.” I reached for the GoPro and started filming. “Good morning.” I held the camera out and pointed it toward me, then her, then both of us.
She swatted my hand away.
“Don’t mind her,” I said to the camera lens with a laugh. “We have no coffee. But good news!” I reached for the notebook and opened the list. “We’re knocking out this sunrise task right now. I need to find Mer first, so hang on a second.” After setting the camera down, pulling on my clothes, and shoving the notebook into my back pocket, I went into the cab for the urn then jumped back into the bed.
Celia clasped her bra and pulled her T-shirt on. She looked at me with an eyebrow raised.
“So damn sexy,” I murmured, receiving a smile in return. “Should we climb for it?”
“That would be great. I can get some shots.” In another minute, her shorts were on and her camera hung from her neck.
We both made a quick bathroom trip then I handed over the GoPro, and she started filming again as I shook ashes into a tissue. “She’ll stay up top this time.”
We crested Eagle’s Nest with about a minute to spare, the dark sky fading with each passing second. I took hold of the GoPro again and watched as Celia snapped off many shots with a look of concentration in her pressed lips and scrunched eyebrows.
Turning the camera to eye the lens with the horizon behind me, I said, “This is it. Check out this gorgeous view.” I panned around, pointing at Celia first. She caught me and gave me a side-eye glare before getting back to her shots. I laughed and continued on to the pink and orange hues of the wispy clouds as the sun made its appearance. Squatting down near one of the bushes along the backside of the cliff, I shook the ashes into the soft soil and filmed it. A few moments later, I found myself back over at the edge, focusing on the lodge and its dark windows. Nothing was moving, and nothing probably would for quite a while.
“Celia.”
“Yeah?” She lay down at the edge to capture a few downward shots of the cliff and the still water, a mirror image fifty feet below.
“There’s another task we need to do. Right now.”
“What? Caleb, we need to go.”
“Stay, please. Go in late. Say you had an appointment or that you had an asshole accost you.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. We really should get back down.”
I conceded only to come up with an idea of how to convince her on the way down. It was a risky one.
When we returned to the parking area, she started to cross over the rocky ground to the Silverado. But my feet took me to the sandy strip by the water.
“Okay, everyone. We’re doing another one.”
“Caleb!” Celia whisper-yelled at me from the truck, her face darting one way then the other, afraid she’d wake someone.
I whipped out the notebook and pointed the lens at the page. “I’ll scatter more ashes for this after. Right now, we’re daylight skinny-dipping.”
“Caleb!” Celia said, the horror still very much heard inside the next whisper-yell. “What are you doing?”
With a laugh, I stuffed the book back into my pocket, angled the camera down, then wrenched off my shirt and dropped it close to the edge.
Her eyes bugged out as soon as my shorts dropped next. “We can’t … we shouldn’t do this right now.”
“No one’s awake. What better time? I’m pushing you, Celia. Right now. Live with me in this moment.”
She hesitated for only a second then surprised the fuck out of me by setting her camera into the truck and stalking toward me.
I slipped into the frigid water carefully, keeping my eyes and the GoPro aimed at her.
“Drop the camera,” she said, lifting the hem of her shirt and pausing until I obeyed her command. Her top and bra were off the next moment, igniting my cold body with a fire kindled not only of desire but also pride and wonder. She was more daring and braver than ever.
I sucked in a breath when she kicked off her shorts and underwear. And only then did she look around before slipping in with me. Angling the lens to my face, I made sure her body was submerged then included her in the shot, still keeping it at neck level in case the sun was already powerful enough to cut beneath the surface of the crystal water.
“So another task down. We’ll have to see what’s next, but for now, here ya go, Mer.” I rushed through that shit as fast as I deemed respectful and set the camera on top of our clothes. Maybe it was a little too quick. But I doubted many people would care, knowing that I was currently looking at the most stunning creature in the world all wet under the rising sun. Yeah, no one would care. Not even Mer.
“Oh, baby. Maybe I did die after all,” I whispered, drifting farther out.
She smiled shyly. “You sure know how to make me feel good.”
“Come here. I want to make you feel better.” I took her hand and yanked her closer, wrapping an arm around her slick skin and anchoring her to me. I kissed her hard, slipping my thigh between her legs and gripping her ass while we continued to tread to stay afloat. No ledges in a deep-ass quarry made it rough to do what I wanted to do. I reconsidered our position after a few minutes, thinking about moving back to the edge again, pin her to the rocks before we had to leave.
A scuffling sound caught my attention. I peeled my lips away from Celia and looked toward the water’s edge. “Son of a …”
“What?” Celia turned and gasped.
A boy, thin as a twig, no more than twelve, crouched over our things, snatching it all up into his arms.
“No, no, no, little boy,”
Celia pleaded. “Please don’t do that.”
His blond head lifted, and he stared right at us for a moment like a mouse caught stealing cheese. I was afraid to move, thinking I’d spook him if I so much as breathed.
But then the little mother effer stood upright and darted off toward the clearing in front of the lodge. I scrambled into a swim, scooping and kicking the water harder than I’d ever had, no longer caring about the noise. If it was only our clothes, I would have let him go. We had bathing suits in the truck we could have worn home. No problem. But he had the notebook—irreplaceable—and the GoPro, which had every second of footage from all the tasks on it because my dumb ass hadn’t transferred any. The memory card was large. It didn’t need any dumps.
“Fuck!”
I tracked his progress for as long as I could until I got to solid ground. The trees at the edge blocked my view enough for me to lose him. I headed in the same direction, hoping to spot him before he ducked indoors wherever he was staying, either the main lodge or the small cabins. Hustling past the trees, I glanced back once to see Celia still safely concealed inside the water, her head floating not too far from the edge. Good. Not that there was anyone around, but I didn’t cherish the idea of her getting caught naked and alone.
Speaking of being seen … I glanced up toward the vaulted windows on the backside of the lodge. Wide. Tall. And plenty of other little windows catching the morning’s light and reflecting it back at me. I wouldn’t even know if people were looking. The furniture on the back decks and room balconies were all empty.
I cupped my junk in one hand, calling it good enough as I jogged farther along.
Senior Year Bucket List Page 15