The Missing

by Shiloh Walker

  His hands tightened on her waist, and he arched under her. For one hot, brief minute, he was pressed against her, hard and close, and Taige whimpered as a slow, hollow ache spread low through her belly. But then he shifted, bringing his knees up and slowly edging her forward so that she wasn’t pressed right against him. Taige pushed back as far as the tight grip of his hands would allow.

  She lifted her head up and licked his lower lip. Taige wanted to say something to him. She wanted to tell him that she was ready, but the words seemed to knot inside her throat, and she knew if she tried to say anything, all she’d manage was a squeak. That wasn’t the image she was going for. Taige would have liked to manage something sexy and mature.

  Wanna do it? wasn’t quite what she was going for.

  She figured she could manage that, or maybe just some terrified, incoherent babbling, but she didn’t want to do either of those. So instead, she pushed to her feet and shifted so that she was standing at his side instead of over him. Taige waited until he looked up at her, and then she hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her shorts and pushed them down, taking the bottom half of her swimsuit with it.

  When she straightened up, she was naked. Naked and terrified; her heart felt like it was banging away inside her throat instead of her chest, and she was clenching her fists so tight, her nails bit into the flesh of her palms.

  “Taige . . .” His voice sounded tight and choked. He also seemed to have trouble lifting his gaze any higher than her boobs. Slowly, she sank down beside him, throwing one leg over his hips, once more straddling him. She still couldn’t talk, and just then, Cullen was still staring at her and looking a little dazed. She reached for her discarded shorts and reached into the pocket.

  His eyes met hers as she held up the foil-wrapped condom.

  “Taige . . .”

  She forced herself to smile. Her voice shook a little, and she said, “You said that already.”

  He reached up and took the condom from her, closing his fingers around it. “You sure?” he asked hoarsely.

  Her lips curved up in a slow smile. That smile alone would have been enough to fuel every hot, desperate dream Cullen had for the next month. Of course, there was the very hot, very real dream of Taige sitting buck naked on top of him. He had fantasized about this so many times. But the reality of it . . . whoa.

  Her breasts, full and round, were a soft, pale creamy brown, topped with nipples that made him think of chocolate. In the flickering light from the fire, he could see the tight, dark curls between her thighs, and Cullen was pretty sure he could feel the heat of her burning him through his shorts.

  She bent low and pressed her lips to his, her breasts flattening against his chest. His breath hitched a little as she slid her tongue into his mouth. He wrapped his arms around her. Then he slid his hands down her sides, cupped her butt, and pulled her close. She felt so good. Cullen rocked against her, rubbing against the hot, wet vee of her thighs. He was going to come in his shorts if he didn’t slow down, though.

  That wasn’t how he wanted her first time. He definitely wanted her first time to be better than his had been, some hot and sweaty fumble in the backseat of a car with a girl he barely knew. Taige was rocking against him, wiggling and moaning deep in her throat. If she kept moving like that, it was going to be over before he even managed to get his zipper undone.

  Cullen tightened his arms around her waist and rolled until she was pinned beneath him. It wasn’t much better; now he was pressed against her heat, and he couldn’t stop the involuntary rhythm of his hips. He stiffened his arms so that he wasn’t pressed so tightly against her, but Taige slid her hands down his sides to his hips, trying to pull him closer.

  Her misty gray eyes had gone dark. She said his name, and her voice was so throaty and hoarse, if he hadn’t already been hard, that sound would have done it. Her nails bit demandingly into his sides. Gently, Cullen pressed his lips to hers. “Why are you rushing?” he murmured.

  Then he moved down, pressed a kiss to her shoulder. He cupped her big, warm breasts in his hands and watched, fascinated. Her skin was shades darker than his tanned hands. He pinched her nipples gently, and she moaned, a sexy little sound low in her throat. Cullen lifted his gaze, stared at her as he did it again, rolling her nipples between his fingers. Then he dipped his head and kissed one, taking the hard flesh into his mouth and sucking on her. Beneath him, Taige bucked. She brought her hands up, fisted them in his hair. His name escaped her lips in a shaky sigh.

  Wanting to feel her bare body against his own, he shrugged out of his shirt. He loved the way she tasted, salty and sweet. He could hear the rough catch of her breathing, and when he slid a hand down her side, over her hip and between her legs, for a second, she stopped breathing altogether.

  This was new. This was different. As often as he’d touched her, kissed her, this was different. Cullen hadn’t ever had her completely naked before him. The curls that covered her sex were darker, tighter. He shifted to his side and lifted up so he could watch as he touched her. She was wet. Silky wet and hot when he pushed one finger inside her.

  She tensed up, and Cullen might have pulled away, but then she reached down and wrapped her fingers around his wrist, holding his hand still as she rocked up, riding his finger. Her lids drooped closed, a soft sheen of sweat gleaming on her skin. He almost came right then, as she rocked up and down against him, whimpering under her breath.

  He added a second finger, pushing it and then drawing it out, staring first at her face to make sure he wasn’t hurting her and then, because he couldn’t not watch, he stared between her legs, watching as he touched, staring at the pink, wet folds, watching as she rocked against him like she wanted him to touch her as badly as he needed to touch her. She whimpered, tugged on his wrist, reached for him.

  The sight of that, her slender arms lifting up for him, was too much. Cullen pulled away from her long enough to tear open his shorts and shove them down. His hands shook as he tore the rubber open, and they shook when he put it on. He stared at her the entire time, shifting his gaze from the wet heat between her thighs to her pretty, flushed face, and back again. He couldn’t decide what he wanted to see more of, and if his dick didn’t hurt so much, he might have just kept on staring at her.

  But he did hurt. He settled between her thighs and looked up. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said softly.

  Taige smiled. “I don’t care if you do.” Then she reached for him, and he went into her arms and kissed her.

  Her body went stiff under his as he pushed inside. He knew he was hurting her. Tears formed in her eyes, and he tried to slow down, but she was so hot, so wet and tight. “Want me to stop?” he gritted out through his teeth.

  “Don’t you dare.” She slid her hands down his back and cupped his butt, pulling him closer, and Cullen lost it.

  He shoved inside her, hard and fast and he couldn’t stop himself from doing it again and again, even though he knew it was hurting her, knew she wasn’t feeling the same thing he was feeling, but he couldn’t stop. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he muttered against her lips. He kissed her, and he could taste the salt from her tears, and he hated himself, but he still couldn’t stop.

  It ended too soon for him. He came hard and fast, and when he sank down against her shuddering body, he knew he had totally fucked it up. “God, Taige, I’m so sorry,” he whispered, feeling sick inside. He lifted up, almost afraid to look at her.

  She had a shaky smile on her lips. A smile. “Sorry for what?” she asked.

  “I . . . I hurt you.” Blood rushed to his cheeks and he stumbled a little as he said, “I didn’t—I couldn’t . . . You didn’t like it, did you?”

  Taige shrugged. “I didn’t not like it.” She bit her lip, something she did when she was nervous, and the sight of it eased just a little bit of his own anxiety. “I knew it would hurt. It gets better, right?”

  You are so amazing. He had thought that about her for so long, but he hadn’t ever said it t
o her. She’d think he was a total loser, gushing like that, right? But she really was amazing. Beautiful. Funny. Mysterious even, with this weird psychic thing she had going on. She didn’t act a damn thing like any of the girls Cullen knew at school. She was oddly more adult, without even trying. At college, he was surrounded by girls who were still just confused, scared kids trying to fit into the grown-up world, the same way he felt most of the time.

  But Taige didn’t have any of that. She had no pretenses, she didn’t try to change to fit what others thought she should be. When a lot of the girls he knew had been having sex just to be cool or get guys to like them, she hadn’t. She had waited until she was ready—and she’d chosen him. “You’re amazing,” he whispered, finally voicing the words that had lived inside him for so long. He leaned forward, kissing her gently. He kept his weight off of her and tried to be gentle when he pulled out. He pulled the condom off, grabbing the wrapper and tossing them into the small plastic bag they had brought for garbage. When he looked back at Taige, she was reaching for her shorts.

  But he grabbed them and tossed them to the other side of the blanket. “It gets better,” he whispered. Then he lay between her legs and kissed her. She bucked against him, a soft, strangled shriek escaping her. “You just need to tell me what makes you feel good.”

  OUTSIDE, it was pouring rain.

  Inside the screened-in porch, Taige and Cullen lay on a worn quilt, wrapped in each other’s arms and not talking at all.

  Rose had left for a weekend in Biloxi with some friends, and Taige had asked Cullen to come for dinner Friday night. That had been two days ago. They hadn’t left the house even to go swimming. Cullen’s dad had called him Saturday morning, and Cullen had said he’d be home in time to pack.

  Taige wondered what his dad had thought of that, wondered what Robert Morgan thought of his son spending the weekend with some local girl, but she really didn’t have enough experience to even guess what the guy might think. He was genuinely nice and treated her like she was somebody worth knowing, somebody worthy of his son. Both of Cullen’s parents were like that.

  She tried to picture herself with a kid, wondered how’d she feel if her kid brought somebody to meet her, somebody who mattered. Taige decided she’d feel a little embarrassed. A little out of place. She wouldn’t want to think of her kids having sex, but kids grew up, didn’t they? Cullen was twenty years old.

  A little ribbon of jealousy worked through her, and before she even realized the question was in her mind, she blurted out, “How many girls have you been with?”

  He stiffened, turned his head, and looked at her. A dull rush of color flooded his cheeks as he stared at her. He swallowed nervously, and she could see his Adam’s apple moving under his skin.

  “Uh ...”

  She wasn’t going to take the question back though. She did want to know. What he’d done to her on the beach last weekend, after they’d done it that first time, it didn’t seem like something that a guy with little or no experience might try. And he’d been good at it, too. Good enough that she hadn’t waited more than two days before she talked him into another late-night beach trip. This time, she’d done it to him first, and after he came, she had rolled onto her back and urged him back between her thighs. He’d gone down on her again, and she’d ended up screaming his name and pulling his hair as she came.

  It still hurt some when he was inside her, but it had slowly gotten better, and last night, he’d made her come that way, just from moving inside her. He’d touched her clit while he moved inside her, and it had lit her up like fireworks on the Fourth of July, coming so hard, she’d ended up scratching his back and shoulders all up before she was done.

  “Don’t tell me you haven’t been with any girls,” she warned him, sitting up and pulling her legs to her chest. “I just want to know.”

  “Why? Are we going to get in a fight over it?” he asked warily.

  “Only if you lie to me.” She swallowed the knot in her throat and tucked her chin against her chest. “When you leave for school, we haven’t ever talked about not seeing other people. If you’ve been with some girl at school, it’s not like I never said I didn’t—”

  His hand came up, cupped her chin. He eased her face up until she met his gaze, and then he answered, “Two girls. One before I met you. Then another girl that I dated off and on my senior year and my freshman year at college. She moved out of state at the end of that year and . . .” His voice trailed off, and he was quiet for a minute. He brushed her hair back from her face, caught a long curl in his hand, and wrapped it around his finger.

  Cullen did love to play with her hair. For some reason, seeing him doing it now, while he tried to talk about this, made a fist clench around her heart. No, they hadn’t ever talked about it just being the two of them. Hadn’t really seemed fair, or reasonable, even, with him living a state away. Twenty years old, drop-dead gorgeous, he’d have a bunch of pretty college girls tagging after him. But she didn’t want him with anybody else. Period.

  “She moved out of state,” Taige prompted. “Why not anybody since her? That was more than a year ago.”

  His gaze locked with hers. “Nobody since her because the one girl I really wanted to be with has been on a beach in Alabama,” he said.

  “Me?” she asked and then she felt like an idiot. How many other girls on a beach in Alabama was he seeing?

  He grinned at her and leaned forward. “Yeah, you.” He kissed her and rolled to his knees in front of her, watching her face as he lifted his hands, placed them on the inside of her knees, and gently pushed her thighs apart. “I’ve been dreaming about touching you, having you like this, since the first time I saw you.” His voice dropped to a low, rough whisper that sent shivers down her spine. “Been going out of my mind wanting you. When you really want just one thing, nothing else but that one thing will really do it for you, Taige.”

  He lay down between her thighs and pressed his mouth against her sex, sliding his hands behind her and gripping her waist to keep her still. He licked her clit, and then he looked up at her. “You’re the one thing I’ve been craving, so I wasn’t going to waste my time with anybody else. Not when all I wanted was you.”

  His voice deepened and he rasped, “Lie down. Spread your legs for me.”

  Her back had no sooner touched the ground than he pushed her legs apart, too impatient to wait. “I don’t need to ask if you’ve been with another guy,” he muttered against her. He licked her clit again, stiffened his tongue and pushed it inside, in and out, until she was rocking against his mouth, and she could feel herself hovering, right on the brink. But just when she thought she was going to go flying off into the stratosphere, Cullen stopped. He lifted his head, rested his chin low on her belly, and stared at her. “But I don’t want there to be another guy. I don’t want to think about you letting somebody else touch you like this.”

  He lowered his head, licked her again, teased her right back to the edge again. Then he stopped. Again. He kissed her thigh and then shoved up onto his hands and knees, crawled up the length of her body, and lay down atop her, his cock pressed up against her belly. “Tell me there won’t be another guy.”

  “So long as you promise me there won’t be any more girls,” she countered. “And so long as you stop teasing me . . . right now.”

  He smiled at her, slanted his mouth across her, and pushed inside. “No more girls.”

  “No other guy,” she promised.

  He thrust deep inside her, and Taige, already so primed and ready, came just like that. He didn’t have to kiss her, didn’t have to touch her anywhere else. She came hard and fast, and when it was over, he was still moving inside, staring down at her, his turquoise gaze rapt on her face, his hands fisted in her hair.

  Her lids drooped closed, and he tightened his grip. “Look at me, Taige,” he whispered. She was so damn pretty, so soft and sleek and hot. She lifted her lids and gave him that smile of hers, that teasing, sexy smile that made his dick ge
t hard and twisted his heart and stomach into knots. Everything about her hit him so hard: the way she looked, the way she smiled, the way she laughed, the way she cuddled up against him after one of her dreams, and the way she trusted him to hold her while she slept. She was so perfect—perfect for him.