by Rayne, Piper
Her hands rise to my collarbones but remain clamped into fists. “Carm…”
She sighs as though she’s certain she should do anything but what we’re about to do. I’m not sure if I convinced her or not, but she leans into my body, allowing my lips to cover hers.
Sweetness. That’s the only word that comes to mind as my tongue slides along her mouth, begging entrance. She grants me access, and a small part of me feels a thrill as though it’s the first time I’ve kissed a girl. I’ve envisioned Bella under me so many times, I worried I might be disappointed if I ever allowed myself to have her. But she tastes like the promise and culmination of everything I didn’t know I needed.
I reap the reward of her nipples poking my bare chest, and my erection strains against my soaked shorts. The rain slides down our faces while our mouths are joined and my hands grow tighter, any resolve I had left breaking.
One of her legs rises up my thigh. If my lips could leave hers, I’d get us out of this water, but the last thing I want is to take my lips off hers because a part of me fears she’ll start thinking too much again. Counting all the reasons why this won’t work or why I’m the wrong guy for her. I couldn’t handle that right now. Not with the feel of her against me.
We explore one another tentatively until her fingertips make contact with my face, meaning she’s unfurled her fists to touch me. I pick her up and carry her to the edge of the pool with my lips still attached to hers.
Instead of the lazy sliding of our tongues, we’re seeking, each swipe becoming deeper. More urgent. More intense.
I prop her up on the edge of the pool, my palms sliding along her inner thighs to situate myself between her long legs. As my hands wind around her waist and drop to her ass, nudging her forward to position her against me, she moans softly—as though I needed any other incentive to take what we both want without apology right now.
As our lips lock once more and her soft skin is under my palms, it’s decided—I’m not going to worry about all the reasons why we shouldn’t be together. She wants this. I want this. We’re adults. We can handle the aftermath like civilized people.
“Carm,” she sighs as my mouth slides off hers and travels down her jaw.
“Here or the bedroom?” It might take everything inside me to walk her into the house, but if she wants seclusion, I’ll give it to her.
“I’ll never make it to the bed,” she says as she tips her head back, granting me the opportunity to run my tongue down her neck.
My hands snake up her wet T-shirt, thankful there’s no hindrance of a bra. “My kind of girl.”
For once, she doesn’t argue with me. The only sound she makes is a gasp when I tweak her nipple.
Damn, this is going to be fun.
Chapter Twenty
Bella
His lips are perfection. His hands are magic. I’m drowning—not in the pool he’s still waist-deep in, but in him. All of him. Every cocky, self-assured, stubborn, sexy, competitive part of him. I knew he would destroy me, but not within the first five minutes of having his sole attention on my bare skin.
Grabbing the hem of my shirt, he slides it up my body, having to pluck away the fabric that’s suctioned to my skin. Anyone who thinks this is sexy hasn’t tried to rip wet clothes off a body they’ve been craving for months.
My hands dip along the grooves of his abs. “So no body double then.”
“Or airbrushing,” he murmurs, his lips moving down my neck. “After seeing your body, I suggest you try my tactic too.”
He skips past my collarbones, latching his teeth onto a nipple. My hands slide to the back of his head and I desperately want to collapse back onto the concrete, but then he couldn’t reach me. So I use all my energy to stay upright and watch him devour my breasts while he looks up at me through those long, dark lashes of his.
He’s so damn gorgeous, it’s unfair. I expected him to have a go-to set of moves for what works with the women he’s been with. But he watches me to see what I enjoy, cataloging it and putting the knowledge to good use. His tongue swirls like my tightened peak is an ice cream cone. His teeth scrape, bite, and suck, his eyes on my face the entire time.
This is not who I thought Carm would be. I thought he was a taker—turns out he gives as good as he takes.
God, I’m going to be knee-deep in Kleenex one day when this all crashes down, but I’ll enjoy it for the moment.
“Let’s move to the lounger.” He doesn’t wait for an answer but picks me up and trudges through the water, up the stairs, then lays me down on the large lounger by the corner of the pool so that we face the ocean.
He straddles me as my fingers continue to memorize his chest—the strong pecs and biceps, the thin trail of hair below his belly button, and the deep V carved above his hip bones. He pulls the built-in canopy up from behind the lounger to block our view of the house. Thankfully, no one should be out on the beach right now with the storms, even if the thunder and lightning has abated for now.
His hands slide down my body, and I raise my ass to help him strip me down.
“I can’t wait to finally find out,” he says as he pulls my underwear down my legs.
My brows draw together, and he laughs. Once I’m fully naked, he stands at the foot of the lounger, a satisfactory grin on his face while he stares between my legs.
“Did you think I dyed my hair?”
“No, but I wanted to know for sure. A real redhead.”
I giggle, my head falling back into the wet cushions. “Surprise.”
But when he takes off his pants and boxer briefs, I lick my lips, needing him inside me. He’s thick and long and hard. If I’m honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of the male anatomy, but if every guy was built like Carm, I might become the founding member of the “I love cock” fan club.
I’m desperate to feel the weight of him over me, but he positions himself between my legs, his palms skimming along my inner thighs and parting them.
“Carm,” I sigh for what feels like the millionth time since his lips landed on mine.
“I’ve waited a long time for this.” He kneels at the end of the lounger, pulling me down to him, and positions my legs over his shoulders.
He leans in, and his tongue swipes over my slit and up to my clit.
“Ohhh…. ahhhh…” My fingers dig into his thick dark hair.
I was wrong before. It’s his tongue that’s magical. It can do things I never even imagined. I squirm a few times and he chuckles into my center, knowing he’s tormenting me with small bites to my clit before sucking it into his mouth. When his hand leaves my hip, I anticipate his fingers inside me, but he makes me wait for it. It’s unbearable, and maybe that’s why it seems like a lifetime later before he thrusts one finger into me, quickly adding another.
I scream, grinding my center along his face. I prop up on my elbows, needing to see him, and there he is watching me again, judging and appraising his performance. The lust and the desire in his eyes unglues any resolve I had, and my fingers grip whatever hair I can get my hands on. I buck forward, screaming his name as I come.
He slows his movements, removes one finger then another while stars line my vision and my head falls back to the cushions again.
It’s not until my body and my mind come back to Earth that I’m aware of the rain pelting my skin.
He climbs on top of me and stares at me. “Damn, that’s the way I like to hear you say my name.” He laughs, his tip poised at my center.
I circle my hips, wanting his girth deep inside me. “Wait!” I press my hand on his chest. “Condom?”
His head falls to my shoulder and a groan rumbles out of him. “Shit. In the house.”
Rising on his elbows, he stares at me with a look that says, “Tell me you’re on something.” I am and I don’t regret what we’re doing, but I don’t know Carm well enough to know his history.
“Sorry.” I shake my head, and his chin tips down, his eyes squeezed shut.
“Let’s go then.” He slides off my
body, drags me by my feet until I’m at the edge of the canopy, then picks me up firefighter style.
My yelp turns into a laugh as he heads to the sliding door that leads inside. “You have a great ass.” I slap it.
“I know I do.”
I giggle. “You’re so cocky.”
“I’m confident. There’s a difference.”
Without climbing the stairs, we head through the kitchen, past Annie and Enzo’s room, and into Carm’s. He deposits me on the bed, digs through his nightstand drawer, unwraps a condom, and pushes it down his rigid length before anything else is said.
“You’re in a rush,” I say, sliding up the bed.
“You’re the one thing I’ve ever waited this long to have. I need to be quick before you change your mind.”
“Well, don’t be too quick,” I say with some sass.
He grins, parting my legs with his knees. “Don’t you worry about that.”
He’s back where he was moments ago. The rain pelts against the window, and the room is dark even though it’s not nighttime. With Carm’s warmth above me, this might be the most perfect day ever.
Late at night, when I imagined having Carm, I always figured he’d be the flip-me-over-and-do-me-doggie-style or insist-I-ride-him kind of guy. But real-life Carm holds his weight on his elbows, his hands fiddling with my hair, his eyes locked with mine as he slides inside me.
We both moan once he’s fully seated inside me. He’s a perfect fit, as if I was Cinderella looking for her glass cock. He rocks and circles his hips instead of thrusting. The Carm in my mind was a thruster and a groaner, a man more worried about himself. Real-life Carm kisses me while my wetness grows. He arches when my nails trail down his spine and growls when my hands squeeze his ass. He builds a rhythm and a pulse for our sex that’s ours alone. I don’t know how I know that, I just do.
His circles turn to small thrusts, his lips continuing to land on mine between kisses scattered down my neck, along my jaw, sometimes to my earlobe. His breathing and moans make me clench around him.
“We waited so long for this. Why did we wait for this?” His fingers brush a wet piece of hair off my forehead.
“Because you’re an egotistical—”
He shuts me up with a kiss and swallows my laughter when he sucks on my tongue. His tongue dives deeper and his elbows move in closer to my head so that I’m caged in by him. He’s all I see, feel, hear, taste, and smell. His muscles contract as he thrusts deeper, draws out, and grinds into me again. So unlike my masturbation version of Carm. He buries his face in my neck, the panting and heavy breathing bringing my orgasm to the surface.
“Jesus, Carm. Please.”
I don’t even know what I’m pleading for, but he takes my words and increases his speed. His moans turn to grunts. My fingers dig into his shoulder blades and my legs lock around him.
I launch into orbit and Carm follows me, pumping then stilling inside me. My limbs feel numb and I’m panting beneath him when he brushes another piece of hair off my face and tucks it behind my ear.
“Hi,” he says.
“Hi.” My hands fall off his back and my legs open for him to escape should he wish.
But he doesn’t. He stays inside me for a second and gives me a kiss that pushes my back into the soft mattress and builds another round of desire to have him again.
My mom was partially right. He’s not just dangerous—he’s deadly.
* * *
“Here.” Carm slides a plate my way.
“Do you think the girls and Dom are coming home?” I prop one foot up on the breakfast stool and take a bite of the turkey sandwich he made me.
He glances out the window to where a big streak of lightning lights up the sky. “Doubtful. I think they’re all probably staying wherever they are.” He walks around the island and kisses me. Something he hasn’t seemed to be able to stop doing.
The gloomy sky turned dark sometime after we finished and fell asleep, only to wake up two hours later and do it all over again. Still the same Carm, slow and steady and the purveyor of earth-shattering orgasms.
“I’m not complaining. An entire night here without them…” He sits next to me, cracking open his soda. “What should we do?” I smile, and he hooks his foot on the rung of my stool and pulls it closer to him. “Yeah, I agree.”
I shake my head with a chuckle. “You have no idea what I’m thinking.”
He glances at my shirt, where he can probably see my peaked nipples. “I can read you.” He touches the messy bun on top of my head. “I love this look.”
“Why?” I touch the loose hairs falling down around my head and tuck them into place. The rain washed off any makeup I had on. I can’t imagine what I look like, but somehow, when Carm’s looking at me, I feel stunning and beautiful, like a natural model.
“It makes me want to bury us under the covers and explore your body.”
A huge grin spreads on my lips. “I think you’ve explored quite a lot already.”
He puts down his sandwich. “I’ve only found two of your erogenous zones, and they were easy to find. I intend to find all of them.”
“Maybe they’re endless,” I bait him, enjoying this version of Carm way too much. I know I’ll be disappointed when I lose it, but I push those doubts aside for at least tonight. Tomorrow I can think rationally.
“All the better.” He winks, picking up his sandwich and taking a huge bite.
A rush of shivers runs through my body like an electrical current. “You sure are forthcoming with how many more times you’re going to have sex with me.” I prop my chin in my palm and look at him. “I thought you were a one-and-done kind of guy.”
The corners of his lips dip. “Maybe you typecast me.”
I shake my head, and he nods that I’m wrong.
“What’s the girl’s name who scorned you?” I ask.
He focuses on his sandwich but doesn’t take a bite, and I know my inkling is correct. There’s no way he’s a bachelor just because of his schedule.
When he snuggled next to me after our first time having sex, he thought he’d wake up and I wouldn’t be there. It was clear to me then that he doesn’t fear commitment; he fears abandonment.
I’m not sure which one is harder to overcome.
Chapter Twenty-One
Carm
I knew she’d figure me out. I tried to convince myself in the bathroom while throwing out the condom, that I’d get dressed and go watch television. Give her the feeling that I was done with her for now. But I walked out, and she had the sheet around her chest, her head on the pillow. The look in her eyes asked me if she should leave, and I knew I wanted her to stay because I didn’t want to hurt her. And now I’m making her a sandwich, sliding her stool closer, and kissing her every time I pass her.
To an outsider, you’d think I was done, stamp me with taken. We need to clear this up right now. I can tell her about Kami and also square things away with what’s going on between us. Easy.
“Kami Johnson. Senior year of high school.” In my peripheral vision, I see her nod.
“I’m sorry,” she says, touching my arm.
My fingers curl into a fist. “I’m not wounded from it if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s just a big reason why I’m the way I am.”
“And what way is that?” She leans back on the stool, pushing aside her plate.
I side-eye her. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. You think I’m a commitment-phobe now because I got hurt at seventeen.”
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
She laughs. “What happened?”
Let’s just get this over with. “I fell hard… fast. I thought she did too. But about six months in, she started saying that I was cheating on her. Always looking at my phone. Telling me I was flirting with every girl.”
She gives me that look that says I probably was.
“It’s who I am. I can be talkative, and I’m friendly. I’m Italian.
”
She quirks an eyebrow.
“I’ll tell you right now, I might be a flirt and I might sleep around when I’m single, but I would never cheat on someone.”
She touches my arm again, and warmth spreads into my flesh. “Okay. I believe you.”
“Anyway, the relationship deteriorated fast, but I still wanted her, still wanted to be with her. But one night, I had to hang back after the game at my football coach’s request, and she headed to a party with her friends. We made plans to meet up there. When I arrived, I couldn’t find her, and she wasn’t answering her phone. Her group of friends were all uncomfortable when I asked them where she was. You know when you know someone’s lying?”
She nods.
God, it sucks reliving that night. The way everyone at that party knew. Everyone but me. Me walking in there after getting my ass chewed out for not having my head in the game. Coach lecturing me about toxic relationships and how I was too young to be so serious. The entire school had seen or heard us fight by our lockers, our cars, or at parties. We were that couple, but I loved Kami. I did.
Bella’s head tilts in sympathy as she waits for what I’m going to tell her.
“Kami was in the shed in the back of the house with a college guy who’d graduated a year before us. An old teammate of mine. The one I replaced as quarterback. She’d dated him before me, and they broke up the summer before we got together. I was an idiot for not seeing how fast she jumped to me. She wasn’t in the drama club but turns out she was one helluva actress.”
“Young love can be hard. I didn’t have one, but when you’re so young…”
I nod, remembering Kami straddling him and his cocky smirk over her shoulder when the stream of light fell across the room from the open door. Her widened eyes. Climbing off him and trying to apologize. As if you can apologize when you’re bouncing on someone else’s dick.
“She was the only one I’d ever been really honest with and let in. My senior year, I had no idea what the hell I wanted to do. Some small schools had looked at me, but I didn’t think college was for me. It seemed like she got me and understood me when no one else did. Enzo told me I was being fucking stupid, that she just wanted popularity and I was the person she was using after I made first string. I didn’t listen. Told him he was jealous…” I feel like a fucking pussy sharing this. “Anyway, it was years ago, and it only has a little bit to do with why I am the way I am. I told you, it’s my schedule.”