by Maisey Yates
“Unnh.”
“Is that a good sound?” he asked, pushing her jeans down her thighs, taking her panties with them.
“I’m killed,” she said, sliding her hands along his spine, gripping the hem of his shirt and pulling upward. “Now get naked.”
A sudden thought struck him like a blow to the head. “I don’t have condoms.”
“Oh!” She scrambled from beneath him and hung halfway out the tent, reaching for something outside. She was bent at the waist, the display completely immodest and giving him a prime view of her ass. Or it would have been a prime view if it weren’t so damned dark. “I have condoms,” she called back over her shoulder. “Somewhere in my bag.” She flattened herself in the doorway of the tent, reaching as far as she could. “Here!”
She moved back in, kissing him as she flashed the plastic packet. She opened it quickly, then placed the protection over the head of his cock, rolling it down over him quickly. Her breath hissed through her teeth and she swore.
“What?” he asked.
“Damn, you’re hot,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her breasts against his chest, pushing him back so that he was lying down and she was on top of him, her thighs draped over his.
“Am I?” he asked, unable to resist moving his hands over her back, her ass, and up again.
“This is already a lot better than it usually is. And you aren’t even inside me. Yet.” She shifted, lifting her hips and positioning herself over his length before lowering her hips down slowly, taking him inside her tight, wet heat inch by agonizing inch. She let out a shuddering breath, a whimper on her lips as she seated herself fully onto him, her fingernails digging into his skin.
She pushed herself up as she shifted her hips and he raised his hand to cup her breasts, heat washing through him as she established a rhythm that set him on fire. He lowered his hands, gripped her hips tight, bracing himself as she rode him.
He was lost in this, in her. In the way she felt, the way she smelled, the sounds she made. It didn’t matter that he could feel every rock beneath the floor of the tent, didn’t matter that the cold was seeping up through the thin fabric. Hell, the cold was welcome. Because he was on fire.
She was heat personified, a living flame dancing and shimmering in his hands, consuming them both. She rocked against him, her thigh muscles quivering. He could tell she was on the edge again. And so was he.
He held her tightly and reversed their position, settling between her legs and thrusting deep inside. She gasped, arching her back before wrapping her legs around his waist and taking him deeper.
“So good,” she said, kissing his shoulder, the contact searing his skin like a brand.
And then he lost himself. His control, his every thought. His ability to breathe. He growled, lowering his head and scraping his teeth over her collarbone as he curved his hand around her back, slid it down to her ass and pulled her up against him. Hard.
A sharp sound escaped her lips as a shiver wound through her, her internal muscles tightening around his cock as she came again.
White-hot pleasure exploded behind his eyelids, release roaring through his veins like a beast as he let go completely, his mind washed blank of anything but her. Of being inside her, pressed against her, his lips on her skin, her flavor on his tongue.
For a moment, there was no past, no future.
There was only Casey. His entire universe made up of a stranger who might not even like chocolate.
And for the first time in recent memory, he was happy.
CHAPTER SIX
WHEN AIDEN SAT UP, moving away from her, Casey had to fight the inexplicable urge to cover herself. She didn’t know why she was suddenly so conscious of the fact that she was naked. It was dark. And he was far from the first man to see her naked. But he was perhaps the first man that didn’t just expect that he was going to see her naked, to not require it in order for him to hand out help. And what had happened between them was somehow beyond her experience.
Her response to it had been... Unexpected.
Her response to him was unexpected.
Normally, she was more calculating and all that. More skilled, more in control. But she had forgotten to put on her favorite persona when she’d taken off her clothes, and that just left her naked. So, no wonder she was so conscious of it now.
She swallowed hard, feeling around the tent for her clothes as he did the same.
She wondered if she should say something. Or if he was going to say something. Then she just felt irritated because normally she didn’t think things through quite as deeply. It was sex, not calculus. It wasn’t all that difficult. Everything had gone exactly as it should. Better, actually. She should be luxuriating in the aftereffects of not one, but two orgasms. Seriously, that never happened. She had become completely certain that the multi-orgasmic female was a myth. Well, Aiden had just busted that.
It was just difficult to luxuriate when you felt so damn self-conscious.
She pulled her shirt over her head, then wiggled back into her jeans. She snagged her bra and panties and crawled out of the tent to stuff them into her bag. There would be no brassiere left behind, because it wasn’t like she had a surplus of them. But she couldn’t really justify taking the time to put everything on. She just wanted to get her skin covered up and her head on straight.
She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Then she heard Aiden get out of the tent. She very purposefully didn’t turn to look at him. The tent fabric rustled as he finished deconstructing the scene of their downfall.
“Are you ready to head back?” he asked, his voice sounding like it was scraping his throat raw.
“Yeah,” she said.
The alternative was, after all, standing out here freezing her ass off.
Getting back into an enclosed space with him beat that out by a narrow margin.
“I’ve got your sleeping bag.”
“Thank you,” she said.
She had no idea where her wit had gone. Where her fantastically distancing one-liners had scampered off to. Little cowards. Fleeing at the first sign of difficulty.
“You’re welcome.”
Of course he was polite after sex.
They walked back to his truck in silence, and he continued with the old-school-gentleman routine by opening the passenger-side door for her. “I didn’t realize all I had to do was flash my tits to get you to play the part of gentleman. Usually, it kind of works in reverse. But good to know that a little sex puts you on your best behavior.”
Oh, there were the snarky one-liners.
He said nothing, only rounded to the other side of the truck to get in and start the ignition. She scrambled into the cab, shutting the door and buckling up, letting out a heavy breath as they pulled away from the scene of the crime.
The silence was too heavy. Like being wrapped in a blanket in a room that was already too hot. So she decided to throw it off. “You don’t have anything to say?”
“Not really,” he said.
She looked over, clearly able to see the tension in his muscular frame in spite of the darkness in the cab. “If you clench your jaw any tighter your teeth are going to explode. And I will not be paying your dental bill.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know how to react casually to things like this.”
His words made her stomach sink down low, that unfamiliar creeping shame spidering up her arms and neck. “I do. You just do, because it isn’t that big of a deal.” She despised the defensiveness in her tone. But she couldn’t do anything to get rid of it, either.
“Maybe not to you.”
“Oh, yes. Not to me. Because I’m obviously the one at fault here even though you were totally on board.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. So what, now you’re just going to sit over there bemoaning the fact that I sullied your good little farm-boy member with my filthy body?”
“Hey, these are your issues,
not mine. I was there in that tent with you. I don’t absolve myself.”
She snorted. “You do think there needs to be some absolution.”
“It’s not the way I do things.”
“Yeah, I’m going to go ahead and let you know I don’t think there’s a way for us to have this conversation where you don’t come across as an insulting prick.”
“I’m not trying to be. I’m just...trying to let you know that this isn’t something I would normally ever do. I don’t sleep with people I don’t know.”
“I’m Casey James. I’m a waitress at Ace’s Bar. I won’t be in town very long. I like cheeseburgers and long walks on the beach.”
“Chocolate?” he asked.
“What?”
“Do you like chocolate?”
“Random. But okay. I do. I like chocolate a lot. I don’t eat it half as often as I would like to.”
“Why?”
She rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated breath. “You always interrogate your lovers?”
“No. But we already established that this is unusual for me, so indulge me.”
“Chocolate is a luxury. One I’m not always able to afford. When I first ended up out on my own I bought all kinds of crap, just because I could. But you figure out pretty quickly that man can’t live on Lucky Charms alone.”
“Yeah,” he said, “I can see that.”
Now he sounded...vaguely pitying. Which was worse than judgmental. Or maybe she was just hard to please.
Well, that wasn’t true, she thought smugly. She had just been pleased twice, very thoroughly. Of course, that was just physically.
“Yes, my sob story is one filled with boring nutritional decisions. Being an adult is not as advertised, at least in my experience.”
“Mine, too.”
“Do tell. Tit for tat.” She watched his muscles tense again when she said the word tit. Funny. He was kind of adorable.
“More responsibility, less doing whatever you want.”
“And I don’t even have responsibility, beyond keeping my own self alive. But let me tell you, it can be a full-time job when you don’t have any real place to stay.”
“Yeah, why don’t you have a place to stay?”
“Wow, really? You’re going to ask someone why they’re homeless?”
“Yes, I am. Because you have a job, and you seem to do it pretty well. So, I assume you could get a job anywhere you wanted to. And even if you couldn’t get a great place to live, you could get a place to live. It seems to me that moving from place to place is part of what keeps you from having that. So, why do you do it?”
She realized then that they were on that long driveway that led back to his place. She’d been completely lost in conversation for the entire trip back and hadn’t noticed just how much ground they’d covered. “I don’t know. It seems to me you’d have a lot less responsibility if you didn’t cling so tightly to one place. So, if you don’t like it, why do you do it?”
Silence settled between them, and she had a feeling she’d crossed the line. It wasn’t even an invisible line, the one that tried to ward off commentary about his living situation, about his parents. It was bold, black and plain as day. She’d never been one for minding the rules.
“Aren’t you obligated to anybody?” he asked, his voice raw. “Is there any one person you feel like you have to serve before you can serve yourself?”
She swallowed, her throat dry. “No. Nobody took care of me, Aiden. I had to take care of myself. So, I’m my highest priority. I can’t afford to be a martyr.”
“Just trust me, I can’t afford to leave my family.”
“Trust isn’t really something I’m big on. But if you say so.”
“The trailer is going to be cold,” he said, the abrupt subject change nearly giving her whiplash.
“Fantastic. Any other selling features you want to throw out there? Black mold? A vole in the plumbing?”
“Maybe you should stay with me.”
“I...” Her stomach twisted, and she couldn’t decide whether she was excited by the proposition or slightly disappointed that he was basically the same as every other guy. “Because you want to have more sex?”
He cleared his throat, his obvious discomfort with his proposition proving that while he might have definite standard male tendencies, he wasn’t exactly the kind of guy she was used to dealing with. “Yes,” he said, the word bearing such weight that she could tell he hadn’t arrived at it easily.
“So this is the payment, huh?”
He shifted in his seat, turning to face her. “No. If you want to go to the trailer, you’re welcome to go to the trailer. I don’t... This isn’t a trade. Either you want to be with me again, or you don’t. And the decision is yours.”
She laughed, feeling nervous and more than a little bit unsettled. “You say that. But is it true?”
“I don’t lie.”
“I do,” she said, her voice hushed. “All the time. Sometimes lying is the only option. The truth is so limiting. Very often gets you into more trouble than it gets you out of.”
“Well,” he said, “I don’t.”
“So I can say no and I’ll still have a place to sleep?”
“Yes, you can say no.”
“I don’t want to.” She was surprised by that. Even more surprised that it had nothing to do with evening the score, or paying him back for any favors he’d done for her. Mainly, it wasn’t even about her desire to avoid spending more nights alone, with nothing but her thoughts to keep her company. Mainly, it wasn’t that. Mostly, she had just enjoy being with him. And, like chocolate, enjoyment like that was pretty rare in her world.
He was nice. He cared about her pleasure. She wanted him.
That seemed like more than enough reason to tell him yes.
“Okay. Let’s go to your place, then.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
IT WAS LATE. The sun was already washing through the trees, casting golden light into the darkened bedroom. He never woke up this late. Ever. But then, he never brought strangers back home with him only to spend all night engaged in every man’s favorite type of cardio.
Heat spread through his veins as he thought about everything that had gone on in that bed. About Casey. About how many times he had reached for her at night, finding her there, warm and willing and so incredibly beautiful he didn’t see any point in resisting.
He reached over to her side of the bed again and found nothing but a broad expanse of cold sheets. He sat upright, the blankets falling down around his waist as he looked around the room for any sign that she was still here. Her clothes were still there, in a little heap on the floor by the bed. And her bag was still sitting on top of his dresser.
He looked out the window, out to the deck that was attached to the back of the cabin. And there he saw her. Blond hair tumbled down her bare back, her soft, pale skin on display for him and the rest of the great outdoors. Her slim waist curved into perfect hips and a butt that was shaped like a heart. He’d never had that thought about a woman’s butt before. But hers was most definitely shaped like a heart.
She tilted her head back, shook her hair out, releasing her hold on the deck railing and spreading her arms wide, as though she was greeting the sun.
She wasn’t really a stranger anymore. Not after all that. Plus, now he knew she liked chocolate.
But she didn’t get it as often as she would like. She also liked the sun, apparently. Just another good reason for her to move on from Copper Ridge when the time came. It was beautiful here, but the Oregon coast wasn’t exactly known for its sun. It was an ideal environment if you liked mist or wanted to run into a sparkling vampire, but the weather wasn’t to everyone’s taste.
He was hesitant to interrupt her. She looked beautiful. Serene. And even though he didn’t know Casey all that well, he got the feeling that she wasn’t serene very often. Just looking at her made him feel calm. Settled. It was a deep, strange sense of stillness unlike any he could
recall feeling before. He wasn’t sure why looking at this sexy little drifter made him feel that way, only that it did.
Probably the sex.
They’d had a lot of sex.
It kind of made a mockery of all of his deeply held beliefs about his control. About what kind of man he was. It turned out he was just as susceptible to temptations of the flesh as anyone else. He’d just figured that living with one of the world’s biggest cautionary tales had given him an edge in terms of keeping control of that susceptibility.
Only to a point, he’d discovered. Casey was that point.
But she was leaving. Her being here was temporary, so it seemed like there wasn’t really any harm. He would waste a lot more energy trying to resist her while she was staying here on the property then he would by just giving in.
Potentially shaky logic, but he would take it.
Without thinking, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and dropped the blankets as he stood, walking toward the door that led to the deck. He grabbed hold of the doorknob, turning it slowly, because he didn’t want to scare her. Of course, he realized as he took a step out onto the deck, walking up silently behind her probably wasn’t less scary.
“Hey,” he said, keeping his voice soft.
She turned around and his breath caught hard in his throat. He gave in to the intense desire to look down at her breasts, and he was not disappointed by the indulgence. Her nipples were tight from the frigid air, and so tempting he could barely keep his hands to himself. But he would. If he was going to cede one large victory to indulgence, then he would win small skirmishes for control.
“Hi,” she said, a small, funny smile curving her lips. “I couldn’t resist the view.” She waved her hand back behind them, indicating the thick grove of pine trees.
“It’s nice. And private, if you were wondering.”
“I figured. You know, just now, since you came out here like this.” Her cheeks turned pink when her eyes dropped down to where he was revealing everything.
He hadn’t taken her for the kind of girl who blushed about things.
“Are you blushing?”
“No,” she said. “It’s cold outside. Maybe I have a rash? But I don’t blush. Especially not over a naked dude. Not that you aren’t an exceptional naked dude. You are. Completely a cut above.” Her eyes dropped meaningfully again. “I want to make some kind of a joke about you being grade-A prime beef or something, because it seems like the kind of joke a farmer would get.”
