by Devon Ashley
“So what did you think of the tour?” he asked, leaning enough to sit on the edge of the desk.
“Well, I’d hate to disappoint you–”
“Oh, I doubt you could,” he interrupted smartly.
I just ignored his not-so subtle innuendo. “–but I’ve sat on your bed before, been in your closet and even sat at your desk. I might’ve even gone through your dressers at one point.”
That last admission got a rise out of him, eyebrows cocking north with curiosity, wondering what I could’ve possibly ever been looking for. For a second the amusement fell from his face, like it occurred to him there might’ve been something in there growing up he didn’t want me to see. Dirty magazines, maybe? But he shook it off fast, and that wickedly sexy grin reappeared. “That may be, but there’s one part of this room I’ve never introduced you to before.”
Like a moth to a flame, I dumbly went for it without thinking. “Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
He was on in his feet in a flash, already in front of me, pushing me backwards. My back hit the wall and his hands flattened against it, pinning me in. “Wall,” he said, his lips practically inhaling mine afterwards.
Well, hello wall. Nice to meet’cha.
I loved the way he used his mouth. Heck, his hands too. He knew just where to suck, bite and squeeze to get my arousal to rise from nothing to wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am like it was nothing. His kisses were intense, just like in the club, and his hands firmly traveled the length of my body, getting to know every secret curve. Unlike last night, I was wearing a bra tonight. Lacey, yellow. But it did nothing to hide the fact that my breasts were tightening the more he touched me. And when his thumb ran slowly over the tip of one, my entire lower abdomen tightened and sucked inward like he had pulled a string on a marionette.
My hands were no less greedy, reaching under his shirt, feeling up every muscular ridge he had hidden, stroking the taut lines of his back, grabbing his ass. His eyes lit up when I squeezed him through his jeans, getting a better idea of what I was in for.
It really hit me then. What we were about to do. A hell of a lot faster than I had done it with the other two guys I’d been with at college. But it felt okay, moving this fast. Like knowing him growing up made me feel at ease with him.
But a tiny part of me still didn’t like not knowing where we stood. And we were about to cross a line that couldn’t be undrawn. Was it wrong to know whether or not he was in it just for the sex? I’d sure as heck like to know before my emotions kicked into high gear for a race that could never be won.
“What are we doing here, Brady?” I asked between heavy kisses.
“I’d say we’re solidly past second base, already sliding into third,” he joked mildly, showering my neck with love bites as his hand slipped north of my inner thigh. He pressed into me just right, making my muscles contract, and my head fell back as a surplus of tingles detonated and dispersed outward. I moaned softly, loving the surge of endorphins flushing through my insides.
I pushed into his shoulders. His attack stopped as he straightened his back, looking a little confused as to why this moaning girl in front of him was slowing down instead of speeding up.
“I mean what are we doing? You know I’m leaving in a few months. Northern Cal. Like a forty-hour drive from here.”
He let a puff of air build up in his cheeks before blowing it out. “I know. But do we need to label this right now? Can’t we just play it out and see where it goes?”
“Are you saying you just want to be my fuck buddy?”
“No.” I could see in his eyes he thought he was losing me. He wasn’t, but my face must’ve been showing some skepticism about the fuck buddy route. More firmly, he stated, “No. And we’ll stop right now if you think that’s all I want.”
I ran my hand through my hair, giving it a shake before pushing it all back behind my shoulders. Brady braved that space between us, pinning me against the wall again, bringing our noses within inches.
“I’m not going to lie. I really do want to fuck you right now, but there’s more to this than that for me. But you’re right. We’re going to separate colleges on opposite sides of the country. I’m almost done. You’ve got two more years. That’s not a long time apart if this ends up working out.”
I was quiet for a moment, thinking it out. The possibility of a fun summer whether we wanted to come back to each other or not. Part of me hoped we did, and I knew that for me it was more than just sexual interest. He had a lot of character traits I desired. Strong, kind, protective. Smart; had a future already planned ahead of him. Even if it turned out to just be a fling, I wasn’t seeing a whole lot of downside here.
“Okay,” I agreed quietly.
“Okay?” he confirmed.
I nodded and reached for his neck, pulling his t-shirt over his head. My hands and eyes took a long moment enjoying the view before reaching out for him again. When our lips met this time, the kisses were slower, deeper. My hand was first to delve inside his jeans. He froze and sucked in a deep breath while I stroked him. He slowly came back to life, but the second I gave him a break, he was kicking off his shoes, his hands unbuttoning and shoving down my shorts. The matching pair of yellow lace boy shorts managed to stay behind.
Brady’s pants and boxer briefs were quick to follow, then he fell to his knees. His gaze drifted upward as his hands made their way up my thighs, around the cup of my cheeks, then settled on my hips when he laid the barest of kisses on my stomach. His hand pulled the top of my boy shorts down just far enough to kiss my hip on one side, while his other hand followed the lace all the way around. My hips rolled into him the moment his thumb slipped beneath, finally touching me.
“God, these are sexy. I almost wish I could leave them on.”
His tongue lightly swirled around and in my belly button. Funny how the faintest of touches could incite such an explosive response. My fingers began combing through his hair, tugging on random locks every time he caused my lower body to twitch or roll. His hands both swept behind, tracing the edge of the lace, cupping the inch of bare cheek it didn’t cover.
Slowly, my boy shorts began to descend, pulled down from the hips. I stepped out of them. Brady caught my second leg and kept it, his hands slowly stroking upward, past the ankle, past the knee. He draped it over his shoulder then, his hands continuing on up my thighs. My belly tightened just knowing what he was about to do. I clenched the moment tongue and fingers touched me, working their magic.
My head fell back, enjoying the feel of his smooth tongue inside me. He cupped the side of the cheek that was lifted, bringing me closer, getting him deeper, harder. My support leg slightly wobbled, aching to throw itself around him too. His other hand moved to aid his mouth, slipping the first of two fingers inside me. The muscle contractions in my core intensified, and my hips pressed even farther into him, desperate to help him along, help him get deeper.
“Pull your shirt off,” he quietly instructed.
It took a moment for me to process that, then another to get my hands to unclench from his hair to do it. The air was chilly against my heated skin, my nipples tightening even more.
“Bra too.”
This time my brain was actually functioning, so I was able to reach behind and unsnap it rather quickly. He was watching intently, so I pulled it down excruciatingly slowly, one strap at a time, then let it fall to the floor beside my shirt.
His thumb began rubbing circles profusely, his tongue and fingers kicking it up a few notches inside me. Now I was really feeling it, but as soon as I reached out for him, he shook his head and took the moment to say, “No. Arms up, against the wall.”
Was he crazy?!! Vibrations erupted in waves inside me, making my hips rock against him repeatedly. I groaned and did what he asked, but he rewarded me with so much more down below, that my whine immediately turned into a series of moans.
My hands clenched and fisted above my head, wanting him to let me grab onto some part of him. He was denying me an o
utlet. When I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, he pulled out, but took up kissing and sucking me from the outside.
“Will you touch yourself for me?” It was followed by the most twisted, most devious…most delicious smile. Ask me to do that any other time and I’d probably turn beet red, tell you to fuck off and permanently avoid you there on out less I die of embarrassment. But right now, it was so easy to obey, so easy to do with my own hands what his wasn’t doing with his.
“Do you have any idea how incredibly fucking sexy you are to watch right now?”
Like I even had the chance to answer. His body lifted, and his mouth went at my neck right as he cupped both my cheeks and lifted me higher, ramming my back against the wall. I wrapped my legs around him and guided him, moaning as loudly as he did pushing his way inside me.
Later, I awoke on the opposite side of the bed from him. Brady was spread out on his back, one arm thrown over his eyes to avoid the light we never got around to turning off. I slid softly out of bed and tiptoed to the switch, turning the dimmer completely off. Then I snuck back in and crawled my way over, trying to snuggle back into him.
He gently stirred, his arm coming off his face to wrap around me. He was still half asleep when he said, “You’re mean when you sleep.”
“I know,” I whispered. “Sorry.”
My body still freaked out when someone grabbed hold of me at night. Even now, when I knew who was reaching for me.
“S’okay,” he mumbled, still willing to pull me closer, even knowing I’d probably kick my way off him later.
Before I could think any more of it, my eyes fell heavy with sleep.
I’d never been a fan of camping. Granted, I’d never actually been camping per se, but several times growing up my mother and I lived in our car between locations. Cramped, stuffy quarters. Windows up. Sweating at night from the lack of air flow. No access to a personal bathroom. Seemed no better than pitchin’ a tent and squatting in the woods somewhere.
Which was exactly what Brady proposed when he asked me if I was up for coming with him and the others to Green River Lake for the weekend. I immediately went with a defensive stance, crossing my arms and leaning all my weight on one leg while I gave him the eye.
He said it would be alright though – there’d be a bathroom. Bad part was, it was going to require walking a mile to get to it if I insisted on using it.
My eyebrows arched even farther north.
“Did I say walk? I meant piggyback,” he corrected.
Lucky for him, I was willing to rough it a bit since three other couples would be going for what I lightly referred to as a couple’s retreat. The two of us, Owen and Lis, Sarah and Matt (yay) and Rory would be bringing her latest rebound hook-up, Chuck.
At least Brady had given me several days notice to prepare. I did tease him that my presence at that so-called camp was contingent on whether or not I could continue putting up with him until then, which earned me a look that declared challenge accepted, a kiss and a thank you. We spent most of the next week leading up to it with each other, though twice we stayed and had dinner with Nana, helping her prepare it. Brady’s mom had been an awesome cook, so he knew his way around the kitchen. A heck of a lot better than I did. And most nights we ended up at his place after our evening rendezvous because I felt uncomfortable bringing him back to my bedroom with Nana down the hall. And like a secretive teenager, I always snuck back inside before she woke up as if pretending I’d been there all along.
And the funny thing was, I had yet to see or hear Owen inside that house, so I was beginning to believe that when Brady said he practically lived in the barn, he wasn’t exaggerating. I didn’t run into him again until we all got together to drive up to the lake. The mile trek was oh-so fun carrying all the supplies in. I felt kind of bad for the guys who had to carry the real bulk of it. Despite my lighter load, I was sweating pretty badly by the time we got there, so I was all for swimming once the tents were up.
I was the first to dive in…literally. My feet pushed off the rough surface of the large slab of rock that extended outward from the shore, hitting the cool water with enough force to make me readjust my bikini top before popping above the surface. Sarah stayed behind to work on her tan. Lis cozied up beside her – which I was sure Sarah was super ecstatic about – though she literally draped her towel over her body to better protect her snow white skin from the sun. The brim of her hat was practically wide enough to shade Sarah’s face, too. All four guys cannonballed at the same time, rocking me and Rory wildly in their wake.
As fun as it all was, everyone seemed to be getting hungry, so Brady and Matt left us behind to get the BBQ pit going. I thought I was safe with four of us in the water, but Rory and Chuck began slipping away, leaving Owen and I treading water all alone.
Was it weird that we’d hardly said two words to each other since that first night? That last summer, I was talking to this guy on a daily basis, nothing out of bounds. Brady had pretty much abandoned us for the older kids, leaving just the two of us to hang out when I biked my way over most days. A lot of the time we wouldn’t even bother inviting the others, content with each other. Now, here I was twenty-one years old and I didn’t have a clue what to say anymore.
“Your swimming’s improved.”
“He speaks,” I teased. And here I thought we’d swim in uncomfortable silence.
“I speak,” he argued with tone.
“Not to me you don’t. You’ve hardly said five words to me since I got back.”
His head tilted my way, eyes squinting in the sun. “And how many have you said to me?”
My arms floated to the surface, disturbing the crest of the lake as I drew arcs on both sides of my body. “I’m just saying. We used to talk all the time.”
I caught the movement of his head as it slowly moved up and down. “That we did. And then you never came back.”
“Oh, come on. I was a kid. I had no say in that.”
“You could’ve called.”
“I didn’t have any numbers. My mom lost our phone.”
“You could’ve gotten it from your grandmother,” he argued.
Actually, I couldn’t have, but I wasn’t about to get into that. This just wasn’t a conversation that could be won, and after a long moment of silence, I laid myself out on the surface of the water, eyes closed off to the bright world above me. All I heard was the loud pressurized silence of the life beneath the surface, and the gentle motion of my arms cutting the water as they swayed outward to keep me afloat.
I mildly gasped when his hands wrapped around my ankles, but my lips immediately spread outward the moment I was yanked. My arms were left behind, the movement forcing them above my head. I giggled as my body slid across the surface like a torpedo, suddenly taking me back to a time when we swam in the pond near his house, where he used to do this very same thing. His feet must’ve found solid ground because my body was spun in endless circles. My chin instinctively tilted back to keep my head afloat, and my lips pinched to fight the rushing water. I didn’t even care that my nose and head burned like fire when a wave crashed onto my face. I just kept smiling.
But nothing prepared me for the sudden push to my shoulders, completely dunking me underwater. I didn’t have time to gasp for breath before I was completely submerged. His hands left me, and my feet immediately sank and found ground, pushing back up with all my might.
I heard chuckling as soon as I broke the surface. I swept the water off my face before splashing the biggest wave I could muster toward him.
“That was mean,” I muttered, but saying it in a way that meant it was anything but.
“Consider it payback for that trick you pulled before leaving last time.”
“What trick?” I asked, not even remembering what I did.
“Dropping the inside of a red marker into my shampoo bottle? I know it was you.”
It started off small, but my laughter grew more obnoxious with each passing second.
“Ye
ah, laugh away. It was weeks before I got to the part that was colored. I was half asleep and actually put that crap on my hair. Took a week for the pink tint to go away.”
I laughed even louder and was awarded with the crash of a tidal wave. Once the water settled, I blurted excitedly, “I had completely forgotten about that!”
Another monsoon of water engulfed me. “Clearly, I haven’t.”
After an afternoon of beer and burgers, a quick hike and more swimming in the lake, the heat from the fire pit was what really did me in. I was practically falling asleep on Brady’s chest as each couple formed a circle around the flickering light source. I turned my head to bury my eyes in his neck and his arms became more snug around me. I weakly smiled as his upper body began to slowly sway side to side, as if to rock me gently to sleep. I had no idea how long we stayed like that, or if I fell asleep. All I knew was that the voices around me became quieter, more distorted and muffled with time. I felt a little refreshed by the time we said goodnight and made for our tent, but sleep was still just a blink away.
Brady hunched over to zip us in. I pulled my hair loose just to re-pin it back, and since I was taller than the tent itself, I dropped to my knees to do it. Two square cutouts were unzipped up top, leaving only a layer of mesh for air circulation, but already it was hot in here.
“You didn’t choose the small, hot tent just to get my clothes off, did you?” I teased, but totally thinking I was perfectly on target with my accusation.
“No,” he replied, shuffling towards me on his knees, making the distance a little too slowly. His hands found my hips just before his lips brushed mine for a single pass. “But I like the way you think.”
I gently shoved him off by the shoulders with a smile. “I’m not sleeping with you where everyone can hear us.”
His lips found my jaw this time, right between my ear and neck. “Oh, I can be quiet when I need to be.”
“Yeah?” I practically moaned when his hot kisses made their way over my ear. “Problem is…I can’t.”