Match your hook to your bait = use a knot that won’t slip.
~A Texan’s Guide to Fishing
Chapter Seven
Emma hadn’t intended to end up in Red’s arms. Well, that was a lie. Not a huge whopper but one that she couldn’t tell herself. She’d been thinking about kissing him again ever since he’d dropped her off at Memaw’s. Unsure of what she truly wanted out of this relationship with him she had to admit that she wasn’t averse to taking this for right now and figuring the rest out later.
His hands were big and when he slipped them underneath the skirt of her sundress, rubbing the backs of her thighs, she could tell they were calloused from a lifetime spent in the outdoors. He smelled of summer rain and the fragrant lavender that grew nearby.
She ran her hand over his chest, letting her fingers linger on the pad of muscles on his biceps and then moving higher to his neck. She loved the corded strength of him there.
She’d never been lifted or carried by a man except maybe her dad when she’d been a kid but she didn’t remember that. Red lifted her all the time. She lifted her head and touched the side of his face, looking into his blue-gray eyes. They were stormy again but this time it was with a storm she wanted to throw herself into.
“What were you working on?” she asked.
“A surprise for you…actually, dinner too. Are you hungry?” he asked.
“For you,” she said. “Honestly I don’t want anything but to stay here with you. I’ll probably be hungry…after.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Woman, you are speaking my language. There isn’t a delicate way to ask this but are you on the pill?”
“No. I really don’t date much,” she said. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I have a condom. Wait here and I’ll go and get it.”
She nodded. He turned and walked toward a battered leather bag in the corner of the room. The lights were on in the kitchen area, which spilled into the living room, so it wasn’t dark. She walked over to the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that overlooked his backyard all the way down to the river. “I’m surprised you built your house this far from the water.”
“I would have built it right on the river, but flooding is an issue and I couldn’t get any kind of insurance unless I was above the flood plain,” he said. “And if you think that wasn’t a long, drawn-out conversation I’m here to tell you, you’re wrong.”
She smiled as he came up behind her. He put his arms around her waist and drew her back against him. He rested his chin on her shoulder and she felt the warmth of his breath against her neck. She let her head fall back against him and turned to look at him.
“I’m almost afraid this is a dream,” he said. His words were low and nearly whispered as if he were speaking to himself and not to her.
She felt the same way, but she’d never dreamed this intensely. The feeling of Red against her back, his arms around her and the way he was talking softly to her, these weren’t things she would have imagined coming from him. She thought he’d be a rougher…well more direct lover but there was a subtlety to him that made him hard to resist.
“It’s not a dream,” she said, turning around so that she faced him. She ran her hands up and down his torso. He had a light dusting of hair on his chest and she traced her finger over it, loving the way it felt under her fingertips. She traced her finger lower over his abs and then around his belly button.
His stomach jumped as she did so, and she noticed his erection. She moved her fingers further down, still taking her time and exploring him. But she couldn’t resist reaching for his erection and stroking it through the fabric of his jeans. He shifted his hips forward as if craving more of her touch and she continued to touch him while using her other hand to explore more of his chest.
He reached for the zipper at the back of her dress and slowly drew it down. She felt the brush of his fingers against her back as he pushed his hand under the fabric. His hand was wide and big against her. Holding her gently as he moved his fingers with featherlight strokes against her.
Goose bumps spread up her back and then down her arms and chest. Her breasts started to feel fuller and her nipples pressed against the cotton of the simple bra she wore. She held her breath as he continued touching her back, slowly moving lower until he cupped her butt and lifted her up off her feet, rubbing her against his erection. She wrapped one leg around his waist so that she could feel him on her center and he set her back on her feet, pushing the skirt of her sundress up and over her head.
He tossed it aside and then stepped back to look over at her. She had a moment’s shyness, wishing she’d worn something sexier than the plain nude-colored panties and bra, but she hadn’t been planning on this. She would have driven over to Whiskey River and gone to their exclusive lingerie boutique if she’d planned this better.
But she hadn’t. She’d just seen Red and known that she wouldn’t be able to wait another moment to be in his arms. She could tell he didn’t care that her underwear wasn’t sexy either. His pupils had dilated, and he couldn’t take his hands off of her. He kept caressing her, running his hands over her body as if she were the most beautiful woman in the world. And she knew in this moment in his eyes she was.
She reached for him, grabbing the front of his jeans and drawing him closer to her so she could undo the button and slowly lower the zipper.
*
He moved around behind her, loving the slender look of her back. She had a smattering of freckles and surprisingly a strawberry birthmark on her left hip. He drew his hand slowly down her back. Feeling her muscles move beneath his touch and watching the gooseflesh spread down her back as he moved.
He leaned in, putting his hand around her shoulder and then moved closer, his mouth brushing over the nape of her neck. She smelled strongly of lilacs here and faintly of the summery day. He licked at the skin there. It tasted salty and sweet…addictive. He moved a bit lower, kissing and then licking at her skin. She stood there, her head bent forward, tendrils of her hair curling around her neck, brushing the fingers of the hand with which he kept lightly touching her shoulder.
He spread his fingers out and drew his touch down her back, heading toward that birthmark. He ran his finger around it, feeling the edges of her skin and then the different texture of the birthmark. He used his tongue next and she shivered in his arms as he moved lower.
She wore simple cotton nude-colored bikini underwear and honestly, he’d never seen anything sexier than her hips shifted to one side, her butt covered in that cotton. He ran his finger around the edge of the elastic, taking his time as he did so. She was so small compared to him…so delicate and he didn’t want to rush or overwhelm her with the passion that had been building inside of him since last summer.
He had a year’s worth of yearning inside of him and it was all he could do to stem the tide of it. He’d been crushing on Emma forever but it had been the last year or so that he’d decided to do something about it. He tried to think of different fishing lures and the complicated way to tie them as he cupped her butt through her panties and then slowly drew the fabric down her legs.
She shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she pushed her underwear down and then she stepped out of them. He was kneeling by her feet and he kissed the back of her knees as she started to turn toward him. He caught his breath as he breathed in the scent of her feminine arousal. He put his hand on her thigh and she stood there looking down at him. Her arms crossed loosely over her middle. Her breasts still covered in that nude-colored bra but she was bare and in front of him and all he could think of was that he wanted to taste her. He needed to taste her.
He looked up at her and she just kept looking down at him. As if unsure of what he wanted. He wondered how experienced Emma was. He’d slept with anyone who was interested in him since he was seventeen, but Emma had always struck him as choosier. She wasn’t someone who did this casually. And it was important to him that this night was special for her and for him. D
ifferent than just getting his rocks off with a hot girl.
This was Emma. It had to be more.
He stood up and lifted her into his arms, carrying her over to the camp bed he’d been using that was in the corner. He laid her on it and she tried to sit up, but he put his hand on her stomach, spreading his fingers wide to keep her supine.
“I want to look at you,” he said. His voice was as rough as the callouses on his hands, but he didn’t think that bothered her. And there was nothing he could do to change it. She made him forget about all the trappings of society that he put on in town.
She stripped him raw and back to the man he truly was, and he didn’t regret it. He wanted to see the woman she really was.
To bring her so much pleasure that she forgot shyness and doubts and whatever else was going on in that gorgeous head of hers. He touched her, caressing her legs and the bones of her hips before drawing closer to the flesh he longed to caress. He wanted to touch her and taste her and take everything she could give him. He brought his hand closer to her center. She parted her legs and he placed his palm over her, cupping her as he leaned over the camp bed and kissed her while he parted her.
Drawing his finger lightly over her, tapping her pleasure bud and seeing how she reacted, how she shifted her hips, and he realized she was trying to direct her touch where she needed it and he smiled to himself. Emma wasn’t as inexperienced as he’d feared, and she reached down, taking his wrist and moving the hand between her legs to where she needed it. Then she tore her mouth from his and lifted her back slightly to reach behind and undo the clasp of her bra.
He helped her pull it off and tossed it aside. She lay back on the bed and he couldn’t help but lower his head and take her nipple into his mouth as his fingers moved between her legs. He felt her hands on his side, stroking down his body until her fingers were reaching across his abdomen.
He pushed his jeans and underwear out of the way and turned so that his erection was in reach of her, she grabbed him and stroked him up and down as he pushed his fingers deeper inside of her. He could feel the frantic motions of her hips and the way her hand kept working him and knew that she was getting closer to her climax.
He lifted his mouth from her breast and shifted his hips away from her touch and then turned to part her feminine flesh and took it in his mouth. Licking at that tiny bud and tasting all of her as her hips moved more frantically against him.
Her hands grabbed at his head as her hips lifted from the bed and he heard her cry out and then say his name.
*
Emma sat up, climbing off the camp bed and onto his lap. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and pulled him close as she shoved her hands into his hair and brought her mouth down hard on his. Her tongue pushed deep into his mouth and he fumbled in his pocket for the condom he’d placed there earlier, holding it with one hand while Emma moved on him. She was warm and wet, and he felt her on his cock and knew he was seconds from entering her without any protection. He tore his mouth from hers.
“What?” she asked.
“Condom,” he said. That was all he could manage. Just the one word. She took it from him, opened it and shifted back. He held his erection for her as she placed the condom on the tip and drew it down until he was covered.
He put his hands on the backs of her thighs and drew her forward until the tip of his erection was poised at the entrance of her body. Their eyes met as she shifted upward on her knees, her hands on his shoulders, their foreheads pressed together, her hair hanging around them like a curtain and then she slowly lowered herself onto him.
He let her take control, take him as slowly as she wanted to, but he wasn’t sure how much more he could take and then he was all the way inside of her. Damn. She felt so good. Her breasts were pressed against his chest, her mouth was on his jaw, his neck and then on his. She kissed him hard and deep as she started to ride him. He put his hands on her butt and tried to direct her, to keep the pace slow and steady to build her back to the edge.
His entire body was screaming for release, but he liked the feeling of being on the edge of it. Liked having her in his arms and the slow tease of her body dancing on his. He wanted more but at the same time he wanted this to last forever and it couldn’t. He knew that but he wanted—no needed—to draw out every moment.
She shifted again, starting to move more rapidly against him. Her head fell back, her breasts thrusting up toward him with each move and he leaned to capture one nipple in his mouth, sucking on it as she continued to ride him. He felt the feathering of sensation down his back and knew his orgasm was coming.
He lifted his head and put his hands on her butt, driving her harder and faster against him. She held on to his shoulders, her breathing sawing in and out and her body tightening around his, and he heard her breath catch and that long, low cry he’d heard a few minutes earlier before she called out his name.
He started pounding up into her until everything in him clenched and then the long release of his climax rushed through him. He buried his face in her shoulder and held her until his body stopped pulsing and his heartbeat slowed. She had her head on his shoulder and her hand was moving languidly up and down his back. Just the softest of touches that was so light he might almost be imagining it.
But he wasn’t imagining anything. Emma was here in his house and in his arms. And no matter what the future held, he’d always have this moment with her. He shifted around as his legs started to tingle.
She moved as well, scooting over to sit next to him. She looked over at him and he wished he could be eloquent like the men in the books she read but words weren’t his thing. He could only stare at her and hope she knew how much she meant to him. But he knew he had to say something.
“I’m not any good at this after-talk stuff,” Red said. “Damn, woman, you set my world on fire.”
“That’ll do, Red,” she said with a smile. “Should we wash up and have dinner? I want to show you some of the books I brought out here with ideas for your house.”
She stood up next to him and then offered him her hand. He took it and stood next to her. She was so blasé about this, as if making love to him hadn’t changed a thing between them. But then he noticed the slight shaking of her hands and that she kept looking at him when she thought he wasn’t looking.
He pulled her into his arms, hugging her until after a moment he felt her arms wrapped around his waist. He whispered into her ear the things he didn’t feel comfortable saying out loud.
“That was so damned good I’m almost afraid it didn’t happen. I like you, Em. I like you a lot and I don’t want to mess this up,” he said.
She turned her head and their eyes met. “I don’t want to either. I didn’t know…I want to be cool, you know?”
He shook his head. “I don’t want you to be cool. I need you to be Emma. That’s how I’ll know that everything is okay between us.”
She blinked and then nodded. “I can do that.”
She turned to look for her dress, and he caught his breath at the beauty of her. She wasn’t super skinny or toned but she was Emma and when he looked at her he knew that no one else could compare.
That should have been a warning that he was falling for her but he’d always felt different around her so he ignored it. She was different and he was moving into a new phase. It made sense that Emma would be the one rocking his world.
Romance is not enough.
~lesson learned from Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice
Chapter Eight
Fishing.
She couldn’t believe she’d agreed to go fishing with Red but honestly if she was going to ask him to sneak around with her, she needed to at least try to see if they could work as a couple. And he liked doing outdoor things. It had been a week since they’d made love in his house.
She’d doused herself with mosquito repellent and sunblock and was pretty sure she smelled like a tourist, but she didn’t think that Red would mind. He met her at the dock with his cano
e. He had on a muscle tee that showed off his biceps and despite the fact that he was a redhead, he had a bit of a freckle-driven tan.
She smiled and waved at him awkwardly but then again this was her. She tended to be awkward when she didn’t want to be. It was as if thinking about not being awkward made her more so.
He waved back. “You look… What are you dressed for?”
“Fishing. Frankly, I’ve only gone fishing on Animal Crossing and I figured that wasn’t too realistic since I was wearing a kimono and catching everything I tapped on.”
“What’s Animal Crossing?”
“It’s a game for the Nintendo Switch but I play it on my iPad. I use it in the library when parents are late to pick up their kids. It’s a good distraction. I kind of got sucked into playing.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you are wearing waders, a fishing vest and hat,” he said. “We’re going to cast from the shore,” he said.
“Tim sold me all this gear,” she said, as she got down to the dock where he waited.
“Tim was joshing with you. You don’t need any of this. I like the vest though,” he said. “I can’t imagine you’re going to want to tie your own line or gut your catches, so you won’t need these.”
He pointed to the sharp knife that her father had loaned her. “Dad said you’d be impressed if I brought it.”
He raised one eyebrow at her. “Are you going to use it?”
“Will that impress you?” she asked. God, please let him say no, she thought. But Red was doing a lot of things that were outside his comfort zone and he was hiding their relationship as she’d asked, so if he said yes, she was going to do it.
“Yes, but I think I’d be worried about where my real Emma was,” he said.
“I can change too,” she said. “I don’t want this to be a one-sided relationship.”
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