Take My Breath Away

by Wendy L. Wilson

  THE NEXT FEW DAYS, WE suck up every second of each other’s time. Before we know it, it is the Fourth of July.

  With Jake taking the truck home and with nearly no more vacant cabins due to the impending holiday weekend, we have to get creative in being alone. One night, we snuggle up on the beach and another we fall asleep on the dock of the boathouse.

  After two evenings in a row of getting ate up by bugs, tonight we end up sleeping in Judd’s cabin.

  We had been out watching the stars and talking about everything. I love that we never run out of things to say. The level of comfort we feel with each other in such a short period of time is startling and scary, yet extremely exciting.

  We drag ourselves in a little before dawn, careful not to wake the others. With heavy eyelids and sleep exhaustion tugging at every fiber of my body, I am out as soon as my head hits the pillow.

  Stretching, I skim my hand across the sheets to the side of the bed and feel around, still unable to open my eyes. It is silent in the cabin so I assume everyone is still sleeping. After my hand finds no warm body beside me, I sit up and look around. Everyone is gone, but my ears pick up on the sounds of kids splashing around outside and boats speeding by in the distance. Sunlight showers in through the two front windows of the cabin as I glance around for a clock, but come up empty. What time is it anyways and where is Judd?

  I fling the sheet off of my body and drop my feet to the floor to slip on my flip flops. Last night, I slept in a tank top and terrycloth shorts with my swimsuit so I currently have no extra clothes with me.

  The cabin door creaks, pulling my attention to Judd’s smiling face walking through the door.

  “Did I wake you up?” he says as he crosses the room quickly to be at my side.

  “No.” I smile, not even caring now where he was. I’m just glad he’s here now that I’m awake.

  “I was hoping I made it back before you got up, so you could wake up in my arms.”

  He squats down in front of me, positioning his body between my legs with his elbows on my thighs. Looking into my eyes, he wraps his arms around my back and pulls me forward. His face lights up with an adorable grin that makes me want to smother him in kisses, so that’s exactly what I do.

  “Good morning,” I whisper before giving him several quick pecks on the lips.

  Chuckling, he corrects my assessment of time. “Morning? Lyssa, it’s a little before 1:00. We slept away the morning.”

  Why did I waste most of our day sleeping? I pucker my lips into a pout, wishing we could have the entire summer together. He reaches up and brushes some hairs out of my face, flashing me his dimple at the same time.

  “Do you know how beautiful you are?”

  I crinkle my nose and run my fingers through my tangled hair, thinking how awful I must really look. He’s just like my dad, completely blind to what a mess I am most of the time.

  Standing up, he pulls me into his arms until my feet are off the ground and my legs are comfortably wrapped around his waist. With a small, mischievous smile, he holds me tight while slowly spinning in a circle as if we are on a merry-go-round.

  “I have a surprise for us tonight.” He wiggles his eyebrows and then sets me down. My arms stay firmly wrapped around him and I give him a skeptical look with my eyes squinted.

  “What are you up to?”

  Kissing me softly, he whispers against my lips, “I guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

  We meet up with the gang around dinnertime at our cabin. The guys fire up one of the community BBQ grills while Abby and Piper run to town to get yummy food for us to feast on. Mitch mans the grill, going on and on about what a master griller he is in a cocky tone that makes me roll my eyes.

  Once the steaks, brats and burgers are ready, we chow down. Everything is delicious. Of course I give most of the credit to Piper, who was in the house for an hour prepping it for Chef Mitch.

  After taking a monstrous bite, I hold my burger up in the air and wink letting her know it’s awesome. She catches my meaning and giggles, sticking her tongue out in his direction.

  Shoveling in the last bite of what seems like Tristan’s third burger, he steals Judd away. They return a few minutes later with two huge bags full of fireworks. The girls all squeal while the guys gather around like kids at a candy store.

  Before I know it, we are all running wild doing exactly what you are told not to do on the Fourth of July, throwing firecrackers at each other.

  Once the tossing turns to chasing, Judd grabs my hand and we race to a wooded area with Abby close on our heels. Pop, pop, pop echoes from every direction as Judd releases my hand and begins to pelt firecracker after firecracker at running targets. I notice he only aims at the guys and keeps me and my sister safely shielded behind him.

  Tristan yells out, “Bombs Away!” and then, pop, pop, pop right at our feet.

  All three of us race in three different directions with me and Abby screaming. Judd laughs hysterically at our reactions. I scramble over to the bags. To hell with this; I am arming myself for this war.

  Abby slams into my back, breathing hard. “I saw Evan over by the beach,” she warns me as a blur races by and grabs my hand.

  At the same time more snapping blasts at our feet, followed by her giggles. I finally realize Judd is dragging me down towards the beach, throwing a lit firecracker over his head at someone.

  “Hey, I’m behind you guys,” Abby huffs out.

  We stop near the water and Judd crouches down behind a stack of inner tubes.

  “Over here, over here!” a voice calls out towards the gravel lot.

  Pop, snap, pop, squeal. That sounds like Mitch and Crystal.

  “Where’s Evan?!” Tristan shouts.

  Pop, pop, pop.

  “Holy Hell!” Evan yells and a shadow runs past our hiding spot on the beach.

  I slap my hand over my mouth to stifle a laugh. Abby snorts behind me and clamps her mouth shut trying to hold back, too. At this point I think we are slap happy.

  “Shhh,” Judd says quietly, barely able to hold back his laughter either.

  Leaning over to Judd’s ear, I whisper quietly as if we’re on a secret mission, “What’s the point of this? Is someone out if they get hit?”

  A bubble of laughter rises to the surface of my mouth as Judd begins to answer.

  All of a sudden I am knocked to the ground when Abby’s body is lifted up and away from me. Judd and I land on the ground together, laughing hysterically. Popping and snapping sounds off all around us, but Abby’s screams nearly drown it out.

  “Put me down, Tristan . . . put me down now!”

  “I’ve got a prisoner!” he shouts out, while racing towards the cabin with Abby flung over his shoulder.

  Hmmm . . . that’s strange. It sure doesn’t look like she is putting up much of a fight.

  Our firecracker war goes on for over an hour until we are all worn out.

  Shortly after, Evan comes up behind us as we sit by the bank exchanging stories of our battle.

  “Hey man, you ready to go? I have to start the fireworks display in thirty minutes and need to get there early to set up.”

  My heart rises into my throat with his words, concerned that Judd may not be able to join me for the fireworks show.

  Grabbing my hand, an enormous grin emerges on his face. I haven’t a clue why he has this cheesy smile on his face, but it seems to be contagious because I light up as well.

  He gets up and pulls me along for the ride. “Let’s go. It’s time for that surprise.”

  Reaching his arm around my waist, he nudges me along.

  I let out a laugh as Abby skips up behind me, wrapping her arms around my neck.

  “Have fun Lyssi-Bee,” she whispers in my ear and casts Judd a quick glance that tells me she may have been in on whatever is going on.

  He places his hand across my lower back to lead me to Evan’s jeep. He jumps in the passenger seat and pats his lap for me to climb up. I do as I’m instructe
d, filled with giddiness from the suspense.

  Ten minutes later, we are on the other side of the lake where the fireworks display is going to start up. Evan pulls into the gravel lot, but instead of going straight to where the show will take place, he takes an immediate left. My confusion grows as he pulls up in front of a cabin across from the pier. Quickly shifting into park, he raises a lighter up between him and Judd.

  “Bring it back out because it’s the only one I have.”

  Judd pats my leg signaling for me to get up, “I’ll be right back.”

  He slips inside of the cabin and I am clueless on what is going on. Looking around, nothing looks familiar and there are no hints to what this surprise is. Does he know someone here? Hoping for some answers, I swing my head over to Evan, but before I can open my mouth, he holds his hands up in defense.

  “Hey don’t look at me. I’m staying out of this. If you don’t enjoy it, don’t blame me,” he says in utter amusement, shifting his eyes over my shoulder.

  “Shut up, you ass! And here’s your lighter,” Judd says with an equally amused look on his face.

  He grabs my hand, pulling me out of the vehicle and to his side.

  “Thanks for the ride, man.”

  With that, Evan backs out of the driveway and heads to the dock to set up for the show.

  Still holding my hand, Judd pulls me to the front door of the cabin and shoves a key in the lock. He pushes it open, flinging it back to the wall and then carefully leads me in with his hands at my hips.

  As soon as he flips the lights on, I see a much more luxurious setting than the cabins we have been staying in. I glance around and to my utter relief, there is not a cot in sight. I turn to face him and smile. There is a flickering light coming from the bedroom and it finally dawns on me what is going on.

  “Did you rent this?”

  Judd moves forward and pulls me into his arms. Neither of us can stop smiling. He kisses me softly while guiding me backwards past the doorframe of the bedroom.

  I pull away from his grasp just enough to take in the room. The bedroom is at the front of the cabin and has a large picture window that faces the lake. There below the window is a king sized bed. Wow; a hundred times better than a cot. Surrounding the bed, on both nightstands, on the dresser and on the chest at the foot of the bed, are tons of candles. They are all lit up making the room sparkle. I spin back around to face him and place my hand over my heart which is now beating rapidly.

  “This had to cost you a fortune,” I gasp out, widening my eyes in wonderment.

  How on earth did he manage to rent this cabin with a lake front location on Fourth of July weekend? I can’t believe he did this for me . . . for us.

  “Don’t worry about what it cost. You’re worth more than this,” he says so easily.

  “But how . . .” I stutter out wanting to ask a million questions.

  He pulls me closer and smiles like he has a secret that he can barely contain.

  “I rented it the morning Jake left. I wanted our last night to be special, with no interruptions.”

  We are clear across the lake from anyone we know; no interruptions indeed! Bursting out in nervous laughter, it becomes very clear what is on the agenda for tonight and I am totally fine with that, more than fine, in fact.

  Once I manage to get the ball of nerves that is swirling around in my stomach at bay, I ease myself down to the edge of the bed as he settles beside me and pulls me into his lap.

  “Alyssa, don’t think I expect anything. I just thought . . .”

  Suddenly, all the nervousness, longing and anticipation of this moment merge into one, creating a love starved girl. He doesn’t expect anything; I do . . . I want this.

  I slam myself into him and smash my lips to his mouth for a heat-filled kiss. Smoothly moving my knees to each side of his hips, I can already feel the desire burning within us both as our lips rejoin a chorus of stroking, caressing and tasting each other.

  I cannot believe he did all this for me and now he is saying we don’t have to take advantage of this perfect night, this perfect place.

  The fire in his body ignites as well when he grasps my hips and slides his hands up my back. Once his hands reach around my figure, his grip tightens and I am flipped onto the mattress, sinking into the bed with his body above mine.

  We slowly slither ourselves to the center of the bed, our lips never breaking stride. I whimper out in delight as he runs his hand up my shirt and beneath my swimsuit, handling me as if I am a clay statue that he is carefully molding.

  Figuring the fabric is in the way, I quickly pull my shirt off.

  Judd’s mouth works its way down my body to my stomach, kissing and licking along the path.

  He trails kisses back up to my neck and reaches around to untie the drawstring around my neck. My swimsuit top makes its way down to my stomach and before long Judd’s hand slips behind my back to untie the rest. I arch my back, allowing him complete access. The tee shirt that stretches across his chest suddenly seems like an unwelcome barrier between us. With a storm of need and desire brewing inside of me, I grasp the bottom of it and pull it over his head before he slides back on top of me.

  As soon as my nipples graze his chest, he lets out a loud breath and kisses me harder. I open my mouth in a moan as his lips slowly descend back down to my waist. He kisses around my belly button ring while sliding the tips of his fingers into the hem of my shorts and looking to me for permission to go further.

  “Is this ok?” he barely gets the words out.

  I pull my bottom lip into my mouth, pressing my teeth down in an effort to calm my breaths. No reply is necessary; instead I lift my hips off the bed to help him out. A wave of excitement flickers in his eyes as he tucks his fingers beneath the waist of my shorts and swimsuit bottom. With one solid motion, he has them off, leaving behind a scorching sensation along my outer thighs from the movement.

  Sitting up on his knees, his eyes scan my body slowly and then land back on my face.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he softly says with a shaky breath.

  As I lay there, vulnerable to his gaze, everything inside of me wants to cry out how much I want him.

  Slowly he stretches his hands to the sides of my body and begins to slide back over me. I can hardly take a breath with all the anxiety over what I’m about to suggest. I gulp down all my hesitation and grab the snap of his shorts.

  “What about you?” My voice is so unsteady that I barely recognize it.

  His chest heaves in and out.

  “Are you sure?” his voice is trembling nearly as much as mine.

  Knowing my words will only come out in a quivering, breathy, near inaudible mumble; I drop my chin forward and take another deep breath. In one swift motion I unsnap his shorts and move on to the zipper. He looks down at my hands, then back up, as I proceed to unzip them and push them down his legs. Shifting a little, he helps me until we are both exposed at last.

  We search each other’s bodies for a moment before the warmth of his covers mine.

  Feeling every inch of him against me ignites all the nerves in my body from my accelerated heartbeat to my quivering thighs that tighten around his hips.

  Our lips cannot get enough of each other and our hands explore every ounce of skin we can reach without breaking our embrace.

  Judd pulls away from my lips and I want to cry out. Opening my eyes, I look at him, aching to feel his lips back against mine. With deep, quick breaths that match my own, he draws his brows together and carefully runs his hand along the contours of my jaw.

  “Alyssa, I’m in love with you.”

  Just like that he says it, something I have thought so many times but have been afraid to say aloud. I want to cry, I want to scream in joy, I want to bury myself in his touch and never return to the surface.

  “I’ve wanted to tell you so many times, but I was afraid I would scare you off but I can’t hold back . . .” he trails off, searching my face.”I’m so in love with yo
u. I’ve never felt this way about someone before and I know we’ve only known each other two weeks, but I can’t imagine my life without you now.”

  A tear slips down the side of my face and I run my fingers through his hair, pulling him to me.

  I place one small, soft kiss against his mouth and then whisper between his lips, “I love you, too.” Like a rampant, uncontrollable river that has been waiting centuries to be unleashed, I let the words spill from my mouth and my heart begins to soar.

  The corners of his mouth curve into a smile against my lips before returning to where we were.

  Our bodies mesh together into one and we move in perfect harmony. He moves slowly and immediately waves of pleasure flow through my body. A deep groan rises from his chest as he gasps in and out. His hands reach under my shoulders, using them to pull forward to deepen the pleasure.

  I’m not even in control of my body anymore. I wiggle against his movement, meeting each of his thrusts.

  He kisses and licks at any accessible part of my skin, moving from my mouth to my jaw, behind my ear and down to my chest. His movements get faster and another groan escapes his lips. With one more deep thrust from him, I whimper loudly as he collapses with his face buried in my neck.

  Overflowing with happiness, I run my hands down his back, letting my fingertips brush over every single curve of his sweaty muscles.

  After his breathing is back to a semi-normal level, he lets out a small chuckle that tickles my skin. He pulls up to look at me with an expression of total embarrassment.

  “I am so sorry that was so quick.” He puts a hand across his face, half covering his eyes.

  I giggle from his reaction and also from the nerves that are slowly unraveling inside me. His hand shakes as he lowers it away from his face, telling me he is still nervous.

  “Here I wanted this to be a magical experience and I built it up so much to make it just right and then I ended up . . .” His low voice fades as he looks off to the side like he is afraid I may laugh.

  I continue to run my fingers through his hair and stare at him in complete wonderment of where this perfect guy has been all my life.

  “Well then you succeeded, because it was perfect,” I whisper to him.