by London Hale
Fears. That word reverberated in my mind. Forcing pieces of the puzzle that was Nathan and me to realign and show me a different picture. Nathan was afraid of us together? Could that be all? Her words made sense, at least. Nathan and my dad had been friends forever, had never really fought, and had always been there for one another. They were practically brothers. But I’d never called him uncle, never seen him like that. He was Nathan, and he cared about me. Before I got on my knees and after. If he was having a hard time accepting what we’d done, I needed to talk to him. To help him see how good we were together. I needed to make him look me in the eye and not run. Immediately, before his head got in the way.
But my graduation party was in full swing, and my car was thoroughly blocked by all the guests’ vehicles. Good thing my best friend trusted me.
“Do you have your keys?” I asked as I got to my feet. My dress was a wrinkled mess, but it didn’t matter. No one but Gen and Nathan were going to see me this way. Not if I managed to get to him in time.
“Yeah, why?”
“I need to go to Nathan’s.”
“Right now? You’re kind of in the middle of a graduation party, in case you didn’t notice all the arrogant assholes in your backyard.”
I glanced up to look out the window, standing exactly where Nathan had been when I’d been on my knees. He’d had a clear shot into the backyard full of the snooty people. Hell, I could even see my dad out there.
I could see my dad.
“What’s wrong?” Gen asked, coming to stand beside me and stare out the same window.
“He was here. He was standing right here when I…”
She raised her eyebrows and looked back at me. “You think that’s what made him run?”
I had no idea, but it wasn’t an illogical jump to assume he’d seen something out there that reminded him of where we were. Of who we were to each other. Or who we’d been, because I’d never go back to just being little Eve, daughter of his best friend. I wanted more than that, and deep down, I knew he did, too.
“Cover for me? I need to go see him.” I held out my hand, knowing Gen would come through. She always did. It took her a second of watching me with wary eyes, but she finally sighed and dug into her pocket.
“Yeah, all right. I’ll go with the ‘lady problems’ excuse. Gets ’em every time.” She handed me her keys before pulling me into her arms for a hug. One I desperately needed. “Be careful. And remember, I will fuck him up if he hurts my bestie.”
“Thanks.” I hurried for the front door, hoping none of the guests would catch me before I could slip out. “And hey, I owe you one.”
“Maybe Nate has some hot friends and we can double.” Her laughter followed me through the front door, cutting off as it closed behind me.
The front yard was thankfully clear of guests, and I was in Gen’s car and turning onto the road before anyone spotted me. You could circle the entire island that made up Temperance Falls in about twenty minutes, so the drive to Nathan’s took almost no time at all even though he lived on the opposite side. I turned just before the factory entrance and followed the blacktopped road to the end, a trek I’d made as a passenger a thousand times.
Nathan lived on a cul-de-sac—one of only three houses on his stretch of road. All small, squat little ranches with grass front yards and chain link fences between them. His sat on the far left and backed up to a patch of woods that blocked him from the water’s edge.
I’d always loved his house. Even as a little girl, it had seemed so much warmer and more inviting than the one I actually grew up in. And when we’d moved from that huge house to the monstrosity my dad currently called home, I’d craved this little white house tucked into the trees even more.
This house had always been more of a home to me than my own.
Nathan’s car was pulled all the way around back, parked against the garage at the rear of the property. That sight caused the butterflies in my stomach to take flight. He was definitely home. There would be no avoiding, no running, no hiding from the conversation we needed to have. I was about to push my way into Nathan’s house and make him talk to me.
Once I caught my breath.
With one last sigh and a mental pep talk even Gen would have been proud of, I turned off the ignition and stepped out of her car. This was it. I couldn’t back down. I couldn’t show weakness. If I wanted Nathan, I’d need to make that clear. To prove to him that we could work.
I needed to be brave.
I couldn’t get away from Brandon’s house fast enough. What I really wanted to do was bail, escape somewhere else, but this island was like a goddamn prison. If I didn’t want everyone in my business, I either needed to hop a ferry or a puddle jumper to the city, or I needed to lock myself in my house.
That was fine. I had a full bottle of Jack waiting to keep me company at home.
Going from Brandon’s neighborhood to mine was always a shock—sprawling estates with professionally landscaped yards to worn houses with peeling paint and weeds cut down to resemble grass. I’d never spent much time thinking about the differences, other than the obvious. It’d always been like that—since we became friends as freshmen in high school. He was the son of a goddamned senator, and I was an orphan. In school, he’d been quarterback of the football team, president of the student body, and the motherfucking homecoming king. I’d been the kid setting the chemistry lab on fire and getting high between classes.
The differences only became more pronounced as we’d grown up. When he’d gone to college, I’d gone into the army. When he’d been working his first job post-graduation, probably making more than I made now, I’d been at the police academy. While he was wining and dining clients, I was chasing down criminals and locking them up. We were like night and day, but somehow, despite that, we’d been best friends for more than twenty years.
And I’d just mouth-fucked his baby girl in his house.
“Fuck.” I slammed my hand on my steering wheel as I pulled into my driveway before throwing the car into Park. Once inside my house, I went straight to the cabinet above the refrigerator and pulled down the unopened bottle of whiskey. I wasn’t going to think about the fact that Brandon had gotten it for me for my birthday, and I was now using it to forget the feel of his daughter’s lips around my cock, her tongue stroking my shaft.
Tossing the cap on the counter, I took a long swig from the bottle, scrubbing a hand over my head. I couldn’t believe I’d given in. Twelve months of deprivation down the drain because a pretty girl in a pretty dress put her hands on me and I didn’t have the self-control to say no.
But it hadn’t been just a pretty girl. It’d been Eve. Even her name was a temptation. Of course, I had to fall for the one and only woman on the island who was off-limits to me.
It didn’t matter how much I fought it, though. She was always there, in the back of my mind. I didn’t want to admit it, but she’d been getting under my skin for a couple of years, with her free-flowing smiles and her laughter that always seemed to be directed at me. She’d never talked to me like I was her dad’s best friend. I was just Nathan to her. There had never been anything sexual between us—at least not on my end. I’d never thought of her that way. Not until that pool party last summer. Not until every asset of hers I’d had blinders to was on full display courtesy of a see-through white bikini.
The age difference didn’t matter to my cock. The fact that she was part of the only family I had didn’t matter, either.
She was the ray of sunshine in a lifetime of darkness. How could I not be drawn to her?
I headed into the living room, drinking from the bottle as I went. Even after several mouthfuls of whiskey, my limbs loosening enough so my muscles weren’t pulled taut, I could still smell her. So strongly, it was like she’d walked right past me. My cock was rock hard at her scent, like Pavlov’s fucking dog. I grabbed the hem of my shirt and lifted it to my nose, breathing in apples and vanilla. Eve.
Setting the bottle on my coffee table, I yanked the
shirt off over my head and threw it aside. I closed my eyes and thought of Eve on her knees in front of me, a flush covering her face, her lips parted and bright red. I’d tossed her aside as easily as that shirt. I’d left her on her knees. I’d walked away without anything more than a bullshit apology. Some fucking man I was.
A knock sounded at the door, pulling me from my thoughts. I strode to the front window and looked out, seeing Gen’s car parked along the curb. There was no way it was Gen on my porch, though. I should’ve expected Eve to hunt me down. Once that girl got her mind set on something, she sank her teeth in. My cock only hardened further at that fact, knowing how much she wanted this. Wanted me.
Scrubbing a hand over my face, I sighed and opened the door. There she stood, all clenched fists and bravado. Her lips were still puffy from being stretched around my dick, her hair a little disheveled from when I’d had the strands clutched in my fist. How the fuck was I supposed to hold a civil conversation with that memory fresh in my mind?
“What are you doing here, Eve?” I said a little harsher than I should’ve.
Her entire demeanor changed, her shoulders deflating along with her face, and I wanted to snatch the words back. Could I do anything right by this girl?
“I…I thought…” She took a deep breath, balling up those fists again, rolling her shoulders as she stood to her full height and tilted her head up to stare me right in the eye. So fiery, my Eve. “We need to talk about what happened.”
She didn’t wait for me to respond, just pushed past me into my house. I closed my eyes and shut the door behind her, gripping the doorknob until my knuckles turned white. I was walking a tightrope over the mouth of a volcano. One wrong step—one wrong breath—and I was done.
Turning around to face her, I said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you like that.”
“You're right. You shouldn't have. That's not what I want—”
“But that doesn’t change the fact that we shouldn’t have done it. I shouldn’t have allowed it. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you like that.”
“Is that what this is about?” She stormed up to me, looking so tiny this close. Her head didn’t even reach my shoulders, but the way she was narrowing her eyes, shoving her finger into my chest, it was as if she were seven feet tall. “You didn't take advantage of me, Nathan. I'm the one who got on her knees, remember?”
“Oh Christ,” I groaned, clenching my eyes shut. Except that didn’t help because all I saw behind my closed lids were those bright blue eyes of hers looking up at me, her lips wrapped around my cock. I could still feel the velvet heat of her tongue stroking along my length. Fuck. Blinking open my eyes, I rubbed a hand over my mouth. “I remember. And I loved it, but I’m twice as old as you are and—”
“You loved it?” she asked, her tone one of amazement. Then her lips quirked up on one side as she trailed her finger down my bare chest, firing sparks along the way. “Really?”
I grabbed her hand, stilling her before she could get to the waistband of my jeans. “Of course, I loved it. Have you ever given a blow job and not had the guy love it?” I asked, then immediately regretted it. The thought of her doing that with any other guy—with Brock—made me want to beat every single boy who’d known her like that to a bloody pulp. “Never mind. Don’t answer that.”
She narrowed her eyes and dropped the smile from her mouth, snatching her hand away. “So you only loved it because you got off. Not because of any sort of connection to me.”
I blew out a deep breath, having no idea how to answer this question honestly while still holding on to the tiny shred of sanity I had. “No, that’s not what I meant, Eve.” How did I tell her I hadn’t come that fast since I was fifteen? That, despite her awkward attempts, it was the hottest blow job I’d ever gotten? It wasn’t because it was a warm, wet mouth to fuck. It was because it was her. “We shouldn’t have a connection. Not this kind. Not the kind that makes me want to bend you over the couch and fuck you until you’re hoarse from screaming my name. Do you know how depraved that is? You’re barely legal, on top of being my best friend’s daughter. And I’ve been trying to fight it. I really have, but I need you to try with me. I can’t do it on my own.”
“No. I'm not fighting it. I want you to bend me over that couch.” She bit the corner of her lip, her cheeks flushing pink as she slid her eyes over to the piece of furniture and back to me. “I mean…maybe not my first time. But I want it. I want it all with you.”
“You’re only eighteen! You can’t know—” I cut off abruptly as her words caught up with me. My heart pounded in my ears, my cock thrumming right along with it. “Wait. What do you mean, your first time?”
She ducked her head, her fingers playing with the hem of her wrinkled dress. The blush of her cheeks spread down her neck and to her chest, disappearing under the neckline. Did her tits flush that pretty pink, too?
“What do you think I mean? I haven't done”—she waved a hand toward my couch—“that.”
Sweet fucking Christ, this was not happening to me. I’d been wrong—her backyard wasn’t hell. I was in it right now. Eve, in her pretty white dress, smelling like apples, telling me her cherry was mine for the taking? Pure. Fucking. Hell.
I reached out and grabbed her hand, tugging her toward me. She stumbled forward, nearly crashing into my chest, her fingers resting just above the waistband of my jeans. “Are you telling me you’ve never been fucked, Eve?”
Her lips parted, her breaths coming quick. She brushed unknown patterns on my skin, and I wanted her hand lower, lower, lower. Wished I’d never stopped her in the first place.
“No, I’ve never been fucked, Nathan.”
“But that night… When I caught you and that shithead in the back seat…” I clenched my teeth at the memory, seeing Eve disheveled and obviously aroused.
“I didn’t…we didn’t, um, you know.” She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “We just messed around a little.”
The thought of that fucker having his hands on her at all was enough to make me want to strangle him, but I got a smug satisfaction knowing she hadn’t allowed him that part of herself. In all her eighteen years, this perfect, beautiful, intelligent girl had never felt another man inside her. And she wanted the first time she experienced it to be with me.
I tried to swallow the gravel in my throat, but it didn’t help. My words came out strangled and rough. “Why now? Why me?”
She stepped closer, pressing our bodies together and placing a kiss at the center of my chest. “It's always been you. You're the only man I've ever felt safe with. I'm home with you. Why can't you see that?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her why she couldn’t pick someone like Shithead. Why she couldn’t pick someone worthy of her—someone who could give her the life she was accustomed to—but I didn’t have it in me. I didn’t deserve this—didn’t deserve her—but I was tired of fighting it, despite the consequences. I was tired of pushing her away when it was clear she wanted this connection as much as I did.
“If we do this, we can’t ever take it back. Things are going to change forever. Once I have you, Eve…” I shook my head, clenching my hands into fists to stop from reaching toward her. From grasping those lush hips I wanted to dig my fingers into. She had to realize what this meant. What she was saying if she said yes. “Once I have you, I’m not going to let anyone else even look at you. You’ll be mine.”
Her lips parted as she looked up at me. “I want to be yours. I've always wanted to be yours.”
I groaned and couldn’t stop myself from reaching for her, bending down and gripping her under her ass to lift her to my mouth. I crashed my lips against hers, swallowing her gasp as I slipped my tongue inside and tasted her for the first time—an intoxicating mix of marshmallows and me, and that only fueled my need even more.
I’d fantasized about this hundreds of times, but even those fantasies didn’t stand up to the reality of Eve. Experienced or not, she poured everything she had int
o the kiss, throwing her arms around my shoulders and clinging to me as she moaned into my mouth with every stroke of her tongue against mine. She wrapped her legs around my waist, grinding her pussy against my cock that always seemed to be hard around her. And right now, as I felt how warm and wet she was even through the layers of fabric we wore, I wondered how in the hell I’d ever had the power to stay away from her for so long. Before, I never knew what I’d been missing. But now that I’d had a taste? I didn’t think I’d ever be able to let her go.
After making it to my bedroom and kicking the door shut behind me, I strode to my bed. She yelped when I tossed her on it, then caged her in, my hands resting on either side of her head.
Leaning over her, I nipped a path down her neck, then inhaled deeply at the curve of her shoulder. “You smell like apples, Eve. Do you do that shit on purpose?”
She breathed out a laugh, digging her nails into my back as she tried to pull me closer. “It’s my body wash. Gen buys it for me because of the whole Eve and the apple thing.”
“Of course she does. Just one more thing reminding me what a temptation you are. I smell you everywhere I go—I could still smell you on my shirt when I got home. I can’t ever get away from you. I get hard every time I eat an apple, for fuck’s sake.”
“Is that why you—” She stopped midsentence, darting her eyes to my left arm, then back at me again.
“Is that why I what?” I asked, trailing my fingers along the deep V of her dress.
“It’s just…Gen has this theory that this tattoo is somehow for me.”
She traced the lines of my half sleeve, running her fingers over the rays of sunlight, then along the profile of the girl’s face at the forefront, her delicate hand holding an apple. Yeah, that was my Eve. Not really sure how I’d managed to have this for a year and not have anyone draw the same conclusion.
“Gen’s a smart girl,” I said, then replaced my fingers along her neckline with my tongue. She trembled beneath me, digging her fingers into my arm.