Touch of Heartache

by Joy Penny

  “I was just thinking that the most traveling I’ve done is at Epcot,” he said.

  Lilac’s hands stopped moving. “We do not speak that name,” she said, then she laughed. “Seriously, though, don’t you get tired of everyone saying Disney is better than Tildy?”

  “It is better,” said Nolan without hesitating. “And Universal is, too. Tildy’s just easier to get a job for.” He scrunched his nose as he opened his eyes to look down at her. “Tildy’s even more little-kid-y,” he said, making up a word. But that was exactly how he felt about it.

  Lilac’s eyes narrowed and she crawled closer to his face, straddling one leg over his torso. All pretense of sunscreen forgotten, she put a hand on his chest and leaned her lips toward his. On instinct more than anything, Nolan raised himself up on his arm slightly and turned his head so his lips could meet hers.

  She pulled back, though, just as he went in for the kiss. “Traitor,” she whispered, and Nolan wasn’t sure if it was on purpose, but she slid her butt down then, grinding gently but firmly against his hard-on.

  Nolan actually groaned—she’d made him groan, on a public beach of all places—and lay back down against the sand. They’d shifted in all the movement, the towel lost somewhere to the side of them, their bodies catching the last of the day’s sunbeams instead of being trapped beneath the stifling shadow of the umbrella.

  He heard the slather and slap of Lilac’s hands together and she started running sunscreen across his torso from where she still sat atop his body.

  “The right answer was Tildy World is the best damn theme park in the country,” he said, teasing her. He opened one eye to catch her reaction. “Apparently?”

  The smug turn of her lips was delectable as she squirted more sunscreen onto her palms. “Wrong again,” she said, rubbing her palms together like she was about to devour him. “But I’ll give partial credit.” She put her hands on his chest and leaned forward again. “It’s the best damn theme park in the world,” she said, pressing her lips gently toward his.

  “In the world,” repeated Nolan once she’d let go. He couldn’t believe how easily she’d maneuvered him into that one.

  She finished rubbing on his chest and stood, reaching her hand out toward him. “Now show me this damn fine beach before the sun sets and we’ve wasted all this time applying sunscreen.”

  Chuckling, he put his hand in hers, letting her tug at him to get him up but relying more on his own power than hers to bring them both to standing. “Even if it were already completely dark outside, that was no waste, believe me.”

  Lilac’s smile then was like sunlight itself.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lilac held the hotel keycard between her teeth as she shifted her tote bag from one arm to the other and dug through the overnight bag she’d tossed in the backseat of her car.

  “Are you sure you don’t mind?” asked Nolan from behind her. He reached into his swim trunks to pull out a pair of keys. “I can get some cash from my wallet. These beachside hotels cost a bit much, but I can chip in forty or so dollars.”

  Lilac glanced over her shoulder to find him cringing. That was only a tiny portion of the hotel cost, but she didn’t care. She’d offered to pay it all. She had her daddy’s charge card for “things to treat herself,” as he’d told her when he’d given it to her when she’d first gone off to college, and he’d never once questioned a charge or accused her of going overboard.

  Besides, she wasn’t stupid. She’d heard his story and knew the poor guy couldn’t afford to spare much. She pulled the keycard out of her mouth and tossed it in the tote bag as she pulled her cover-up out of the bag. “Keep it,” she said, pulling the long shirt over her head. She should have done that before she’d gone and gotten them a room because several heads had turned when she’d walked into the lobby in her golden bikini. “I offered. You accepted.”

  Nolan jingled his car keys in his hand absentmindedly. “I know, I just…”

  “Will your family think it’s weird if you don’t show up tonight?”

  “I’ll text Dad,” he said. Despite his clear nervousness, he cracked a smile. “I have condoms in my car.”

  Lilac grinned and rifled more through her bag, bringing out a variety. “You can get those or use one of mine,” she said. “I didn’t know what you’d like, so I came prepared.”

  Nolan’s eyes widened staring at the rows in her hands. She had bought enough to bed the entire Miami Dolphins lineup, but she hoped he didn’t think that meant she was the kind of girl to use them all. Not all at once anyway.

  She slipped the condoms back into her bag and took out her sunglasses. The sun was almost gone by now, but the bright red orb glared harshly off the surrounding cars and glass structures. “And I’m on the pill,” she said, “so no worries there.”

  “Right,” said Nolan, swallowing. “I’ll just grab my shirt—”

  Lilac stepped forward and put a hand around his bicep. “The whole point of this is to take clothes off, not put more clothes on.”

  He stared pointedly at her cover-up.

  “Touché,” she said, letting him go. She pulled her phone out of her bag as he left to stop by his car—a decade-plus-old thing with rust stains near the tires and under the driver’s side door.

  Just letting you know I did wind up getting a room, she texted Aunt Frankie. And no worries. I had exactly zero alcoholic drinks.

  She saw a message from Gavin, but she was too giddy to respond.

  Nolan appeared again at her side and he looked even more handsome in a skin-tight, faded T-shirt than he had with his bare torso exposed, so apparently that was possible. “Shall we?” he asked, extending his arm. Lilac took it. A gentleman. If only he weren’t so damn young…

  But he’d do for the night and then some.

  Nolan tried not to stare at the bottom of Lilac’s golden bikini that poked out from beneath her oversized shirt as she put the keycard in the hotel room door. He realized she’d more than invited him to look—and she was clearly sober tonight, so it was nice to know all that talk last weekend hadn’t just been the alcohol—but he still felt like a perv.

  Tossing her bag on the floor inside, she turned around and his eyes snapped back up to her face, where her lips turned into a devious grin. “You’re impatient.” She wrapped her hands around his torso and pulled him into the room with her.

  He didn’t even look at the room as the door slid shut behind him. He put his arms around her waist, felt the softness of her lower back, and couldn’t tear his gaze away from the picturesque depths of her crystal-blue eyes. As he leaned forward for a kiss, her finger went to his lips.

  “First things first,” she said. “I want to clarify a few things.”

  Nolan swallowed, his groin pulsating and threatening to tear a hole in his swim trunks if he waited a minute longer. He took a deep breath. Damn, he was rusty. He didn’t want her to think he couldn’t satisfy her.

  He regretted more than ever that he hadn’t made time for more tail over the past few months. He could have done with the practice when faced with the first girl for whom he really wanted to do it right.

  “This is just fun,” she said. “Right?”

  A chill ran through Nolan’s body then and his throat suddenly felt parched. The serpentine contents of his swim trunks cooled off somewhat then, which was ironic because his “other brain” down there should have given less of a shit than he did if there was any hope of a long-term relationship with the gorgeous woman in his arms. It was enough that there was a gorgeous woman in his arms.

  “Su-Sure,” he scrambled to say, clearing his throat and trying to appear casual. “I mean—if that’s what you want.”

  Lilac let go of his waist and flipped the switch to turn on the light in the room. Usually, Nolan would say he’d prefer the dark, but there was no way he was letting a second of this evening with Lilac lurk beneath the shadows where he couldn’t see her. She picked up her tote and strolled toward the bed—one king-si
zed bed, he noticed, which was, naturally, bigger than the twin XL he had at home. He’d never take a girl there, though, so that wasn’t too much of an issue. The room was nice, he finally noticed—bright and cheery, sleek and modern like a beach cabana might be, and there was a view of Cocoa Beach and the ocean behind her that would have taken his breath away if Lilac wasn’t already removing her shirt again.

  She put her hands behind her back to reach the back of her bikini top, but she caught him staring. She turned around and undid her bun, letting her long, blonde hair unfurl down past the middle of her back. Lifting it up, she glanced over her shoulder. “Untie me?” she asked, slow and seductive.

  Nolan didn’t have to be asked twice. He strode the distance between them in four seconds flat, gently pulling at her string at the back of her neck and then the one lower down. The bikini top fell limply into his hands.

  With slow, deliberate movements, she let go of her hair and turned around, letting him look at the biggest pair of breasts he’d ever had the privilege of seeing in person. They were well-shaped, too, and Nolan knew the flesh would spill from between his fingers if he laid his hands to rest there.

  Before he could even realize he was doing more than just imagining that, Lilac grinned and grabbed hold of her bikini top, which he’d squished against one of her nipples in his eagerness. She slid it loose from his fingers and tossed it on the ground before leaning forward and whispering in his ear. “I’ve got sand in all of my cracks,” she said. “I’m going to take a shower first.”

  A light bulb went off in Nolan’s head just then. “I’ve never had sex in the shower.”

  Bursting out laughing, Lilac leaned back. “Sorry,” she said suddenly, perhaps reading something on his face—some feeling of embarrassment he hadn’t meant to convey—and catching her breath. “I wasn’t laughing at you, I just—yes,” she said. “Let’s do it.” She nodded. “It’s been a while since I’ve done it in the shower.”

  She headed toward the bathroom door. “But do give me a moment to freshen up first. I’ll call you when I’m ready.” She paused and pointed toward her bag on the bed. “Grab a flavor.”

  As she shut the door behind her, Nolan strode over toward the bed.

  Grape? Strawberry? Nolan hadn’t figured the girl for having a penchant for candy.

  Soaked, fresh and decidedly sand-free, Lilac let the warm barrage of the water from the showerhead help clear her head. She thanked God for the fact that there was a walk-in shower separate from the tub—she’d tried the traditional tub/shower combo before and had decided she wouldn’t attempt it again unless she developed talent as a contortionist. No, the one time she’d gotten the shower thing right had been in Spain with a cute local in her global studies program. Spanish showers were just made better for such things compared to the ones crammed into tiny college apartments.

  Stepping away from the showerhead, Lilac took a deep breath. She needed to focus. Focus on the now, push the niggling feelings of disgust away. Nolan was exactly what she needed right now. Adorable, sweet, and younger than her, if only by a year—a little fling and nothing too serious.

  And she was going to enjoy the fuck out of this fling.

  She wrapped a towel around her torso, opened the door, and peered out into the room. “You can come in now.”

  Nolan was pacing the room, a condom in his hand instead of on his dick. That hardly surprised Lilac. She knew a lot of guys liked her to be the one to put it on them.

  “Can you hold this?” he asked. “Um, I need to take a piss.”

  Letting out a small chuckle, she stepped outside the room. She pinched the condom lightly between two fingers, her other hand struggling to keep the towel in place. “Those might be the most romantic words a man has ever uttered to me.”

  She liked the way his face went red when she teased him.

  “Sorry,” he said. “A bit off my game.”

  He didn’t shut the door behind him entirely, but she gave him some space. A few minutes later, she heard his voice call out. “You can—you can come in.”

  She did. His clothes were on the floor in the corner and he was already standing there in the shower beneath the hot, steamy, steady stream of water.

  Lilac took back what she’d thought earlier. He did look better naked. He was no bodybuilder, but he had definition and a pertness to his ab muscles that no one but college boys seemed capable of maintaining. His thighs were thick and defined, just how she liked him, and the way his hip bones jutted out made her want to run her fingers along them. She crossed the room and did just that, gently putting the condom between her teeth and staring at where her fingers went as they traced those sharp bones toward the flaccid penis that hung down there, just waiting for her.

  “You’re soaking your towel,” he said then.

  “Don’t care,” she replied, and she got on her knees, the dregs of the shower water that made its way over Nolan’s shoulders and torso spraying like a gentle waterfall over her head. She repositioned the condom so she could use her fingers and teeth to slide his sword into its sheath.

  It grew hard almost instantly, but Lilac just stretched her torso straighter, dug her free hand into his thick thigh and unfurled the rubber—gently, slowly, letting him savor every moment of it.

  He stumbled a bit and leaned his back against the tiles as his hands found purchase on her shoulders.

  Once the condom was fully on, Lilac took a deep breath and slipped the tip of his member in her mouth. Her towel slipped then, and his eyes were drawn instantly to the tops of her breasts and her erect nipples. She purposely pushed the tips of her breasts against his thighs, letting her nipples trace a pattern like feathers against his skin. Her tongue, meanwhile, worked its way around the strawberry-flavored condom, up his shaft, taking as much of him inside her mouth as she could, letting her throat relax.

  Nolan groaned, letting his hands fling wildly to the back of her head and she moved her tongue around and around until he seemed about to burst.

  “Stand,” he gasped, surprisingly commandeering in the moment.

  She let him slide out of her mouth and leaned back, collapsing onto her calves. She stared up. The water cascaded around the back of him and dripped down his hair, down his arms, down his torso and he looked amazingly like Tarzan beneath a waterfall in the jungle.

  Shower sex had never made her feel as wild and raunchy as this.

  “Come on,” he said, his hand extended toward her. He smiled, invitingly—sweetly. “Stand, beautiful. Let me return the favor.”

  On shaking limbs, she did as bidden. Nolan locked his lips with hers immediately and she grabbed tightly to his hair, pulling him closer, needing to merge all of him with her. His hands cupped her breasts and slid down the sides of her, pausing at her hips and sliding to her buttocks, where they worked in massaging motions down and under her ass cheeks. He gripped them hard and somehow found a way to tug her even closer. His lips an inch from hers, the water pebbling down both of their foreheads, he asked, “Shall I reach inside you?”

  She nodded breathlessly. “Hurry,” she said, feeling a wave of need and hunger rise inside her.

  One hand let go of her buttocks and his fingers traveled around the length of her flesh along her hips and to the front. Slipping between the lips of her labia, the fingers circled around and up to that most special of spots on her body. They danced lightly there and her knees buckled as she fell into him, clutching to his back for support. “More,” she whispered.

  And he gave her more, his fingers moving down and inside her, breaking through her defenses gently, expanding and sliding up, then down. Lilac clutched to his skin, trying not to let her nails dig in and hurt him but feeling as if she might collapse out of pleasure if he didn’t anchor her.

  “Can I come in?” he whispered in her ear and she wanted to laugh—she did laugh, but it was drowned out by the sound of the water falling and the groan that passed her lips as his thumb went to work in tandem with his fingers. “Yes,”
she gasped, and in a moment, his fingers were gone and she almost wanted to cry out to him to put them back, but he had flipped her around, slowly but firmly, taking care to make sure she didn’t slip in the gathering water that sloshed over their toes. Her hands slammed against the tile to steady her legs. Before she could even make another sound, one of his hands reached up to gather her left breast, the other wrapped around and parked firmly on her clit, and then she felt his cock slide all the way up inside her.

  She screamed, then—not in pain or fear, but a real, guttural, primal sound as she worked through the burst of pleasure unlike any she’d quite felt before.

  He withdrew slightly—then went back in.

  “Again,” she said, her voice rough, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care that he utterly destroyed her in that moment. She didn’t care about anything except feeling him inside her. “Again,” she whispered.

  And he did. They did. Again and again with her back to the wall and their own personal waterfall flushing down over them, washing all their dirtiness away. But she begged for it again and again, refusing to let the water cleanse them entirely. Again and again, after they shut the faucet off and toweled dry, only to find their lips locked and Lilac’s ass on the bed and the whole dance begun anew.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Before Nolan opened his eyes, for the briefest of moments, he luxuriated in the feel of Lilac’s cheek resting on his bare chest, her hand resting over his front, tucked against his hip.

  Like a balm over the chapped and ragged thing that had been his heart the past few years, her touch had soothed and awoken him, even though a part of him still felt like there was the ghost of something there behind it even on her side—a touch of heartache.

  He wished he could be the one to soothe her pain. He wanted to be.

  In a jolt as his eyes fluttered open, he realized it was Saturday morning and he’d left his phone in his car’s glove compartment. He’d texted his dad about being gone for a while after school, but despite assurances to Lilac that he would, he’d never texted to say he’d planned to spend the whole night away from home. Part of him hadn’t wanted to see his dad tell him he couldn’t stay because he was needed the next morning, and part of him honestly thought he’d be on his way before the sun rose. As if he could willingly walk away from her.