Losing Faith (Surfers Way)

by Jennifer Ryder

  “Young man, is everything okay in there?” a voice chirps.

  “Oh my God,” Quade says, scaling his open palm down his face. “She’s relentless. If I don’t answer her she’s likely to call the cops. I don’t need Wilson getting up in my grill when I’m trying to—”

  Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

  “Dear?” the frail voice echoes in the hallway, as if her mouth is right up against the doorframe.

  “Be naked when I get back,” he says, sliding his finger down my stomach and snapping the slim waistband of my underwear against my skin. He storms from the room to get rid of our unwanted visitor.

  I lean my back against the cool tiles and sigh, shutting my eyes as a cloud of steam envelopes me.

  A latch turns and the front door squeaks in the distance.

  “Mrs Prescott,” Quade says, huffing as if he’s out of breath.

  I tug my bra off and fling it out onto the bathroom floor.

  “Dear, I heard a scream. Is everything okay here?”

  “Sorry, a possum tried to attack a friend of mine. She’s fine though.”

  I cover my mouth to stifle my laughter. I guess he couldn’t exactly say he was oiling up a woman in the process of wooing her.

  “Possums are a problem, aren’t they?” she says.

  Am I going to be stuck in this shower by myself forever? Please don’t let her settle into the conversation.

  I glide my panties down my legs and untangle them from my feet, leaving them on the shower floor now that they’re soaked.

  “Thank you for checking on us. Again, sorry to disturb you,” Quade says.

  “Just glad everything is fine and dandy. Goodnight, dear.”

  “Night.”

  The door slams a second later, and a latch clicks. Determined footsteps pound against the floor, growing louder with each step.

  My heart kicks like a wild animal in a cage and my chest expands with each anticipative breath. Then I see him. Huffing and puffing as if he’s just ran a marathon. I watch on in amusement as Quade almost loses his balance taking off his shorts. His shorts meet the floor. Boxers are tossed.

  He stands proud, hands on hips, and looks down.

  His cock is beautiful. Not quite hard, but … wow.

  “Don’t judge me by being half-mast, right now. Talking possums with a senior citizen at this point in the game wasn’t part of the plan.”

  I still haven’t taken my eyes from it. “No judging here.” As his cock grows harder my legs grow weaker.

  He joins me under the water, his eyes flitting over my body. “You’re incredible. Beautiful,” he grumbles, pulling me against his wet body and kissing my neck, nipping and sucking the sensitive flesh beneath my ear. I melt against him and then drag in a deep breath. Before things go much further, I have to put my fear out there.

  I press my flattened palm to his chest, which brings his lustful gaze to my face. I take his face in my hands and stare deep into his baby blues.

  “You okay?” he asks.

  A tortured sigh parts my lips. “What if I don’t remember how to do it? What if I suck?” I blurt out.

  “If you’re not sure—”

  “I’m sure,” I whisper.

  He presses his lips to mine in a tender kiss and wraps his arms around my shoulders. “I promise you won’t suck ... unless there’s something in particular you want to suck.” He glides his front against my stomach.

  As his hard cock slips against my skin, I decide then and there that this is the sexiest, most erotic moment I’ve ever experienced. The feel of him, the want and need radiating from both our bodies in this chamber of steam has my lady parts spiralling into a frenzy of sensations.

  “Do you wanna suck it?” he asks in a gravelly voice.

  I slap his arse, which causes a rumble to barrel up his throat. Surprise registers in his eyes.

  “I just said that out loud, huh?” he says.

  I nod as I slide my hands over the deliciously rounded curve of his bum, my fingers gripping tight and pulling him against me. “You did,” I say, raising one of my brows. “I like it.” Talk dirty to me.

  “Yeah, well seeing you wet like this, I can’t be Mr Charming anymore. No more wooing. It’s open slather now. Time to both take what we want … what we’ve always wanted.”

  “Yes,” I moan into his mouth, water spraying between us. The sensation of heat adds to the dizziness in my head, or is it just my feelings for Quade that have me swooning and jelly-like?

  “That fire in your eyes is burning brighter already,” he tells me as he slides his fingers between my legs, tickling at my clit with his thumb. I grip his shoulders for stability as a shudder rips through my body.

  “Uh-huh,” is all my mouth will deliver as a response.

  He bends down and pumps liquid soap in his hands, soaping it between his fingers, then running it over my body where the oil clung moments before.

  “Who knew I just had to get you wet,” he says, complete with a growl into my ear. He flips me to face the back wall of the shower, gripping my breasts with a pressure that will surely bruise, but the power, the thrill that courses through my blood with his possessive touch leaves me wanting more.

  My palms flatten against the wall. One of his hands tweaks my nipple. The other skates down over my stomach, on a fast track, soon rubbing at my swollen clit. Each stroke drives the ache to become deeper, more intense and closer to the point of falling over the edge.

  “Not yet,” I say, breathless. When I come, I want him inside me. I’ve waited too long.

  I turn around and kneel at his feet, shaking off how uncomfortable my knees are on the hard surface. His broad shoulders block the stream of water, protecting me from its hot blast. I wrap my small fingers around the base of his hard length. He bends his knees, bringing the prize right to my lips. I plunge the swollen head into my mouth, sucking on it like I’ve read I’m supposed to. With quick strokes, I lash the head with my tongue while my hand glides up and down his shaft.

  “Laaaaccceeey,” he rumbles. The desperate hold of his fingers in my hair brings him deeper down my throat to the point where I know I can’t swallow anymore. I can’t believe that simply pleasuring him with my mouth, hearing the gravelly tone in his voice and watching the shaking of his legs has my heart pounding and my own ache and want driving me on.

  I move one hand between my legs, confirming with a graze of my fingers just how close I am to spiralling out of control as I jerk at the touch. A moan reverberates up my throat as I play with myself and lick the underside of his cock while tickling at his balls.

  “There’s only so much teasing I can take, Lace. That fiery tongue of yours has me ready to blow.”

  “What if I want you to?” Lick. “What if I wanna taste you?” Lick.

  I swallow down the lump in my throat, wishing it was his come. I’m beyond curious when it comes to that.

  “Trust me. I want that, but I have other plans.” He reaches behind him and slams off the water, then helps me to my feet.

  He steps out onto the floor mat and grabs the bottom towel in a high stack on a shelf beside the bath. It brings at least half a dozen neatly folded white towels to the ground. He scatters them, overlapping the fabric on the small space in the middle of the room.

  Quade grips my hand, and before I can blink I’m on my back, legs open wide in the middle of the bundle of linen.

  He opens and shuts the bottom drawer of his vanity unit, pulling out a silver packet. With a rip of the foil, he kneels between my thighs and rolls a condom over his generous package.

  A chill rushes over my skin as our wet bodies collide. Quade thrusts inside me, forcing the air from my lungs in one swift pump. I wrap my legs around his waist, digging my heels into his arse cheeks. With a tilt of my hips I take him deeper, the pleasure so intense I screw my eyes shut as if I can hold on to it, savour it even more.

  “Yes,” he hisses against my lips. His fingers dig into my hips harder with each frantic thrust
inside me. I cry out his name, panting and clawing at his back. The muscles in his upper body tense to the point where he’s shaking.

  “More,” I scream.

  A phone blares like a strangled foghorn in the distance.

  “No!” we both cry out. A laugh bubbles up my throat, but it’s crying I feel like doing. Quade slows the rhythm of his hips as the ringing continues.

  “I’m not stopping for anything,” he grumbles. “Want you so much.”

  I rake my fingernails down his back and stare into his crystal blue eyes with a determination I’ve never known before. “I don’t care if we’re about to be victims to an earthquake and might be swallowed whole. Don’t you dare stop.”

  With my words, he slams his mouth to mine. In a fever of desperation, our bodies sync into rhythm once more. A primal growl purrs from his lips as he drives into me, gaining pace like each beat of my heart. He reaches for my hand and brings my fingers to the point where our bodies join.

  “Lose yourself, Lace. Give that to me.”

  Our shallow breaths grow louder. I move my hand in time with the movement of his hips. There’s no reluctance on my part to pleasure myself in front of him, no time to be shy now. It’s desire, need and pure animalistic want all at once.

  This is the more that I have to have.

  In measured strokes, I press my fingers more firmly. My back arches as a tortured cry garbles up my throat. Oh God. I’m coming, I’m …

  My orgasm shreds through my veins with a force that’s almost frightening. Black spots prickle in my vision. I gasp for breath.

  “That’s it,” he breathes into my ear, slamming his hips into me and drawing out my pleasure until he tenses all over, and a pulsing deep inside my core sends my eyeballs to roll into the back of my head.

  Now I’m really alive.

  My ravenous heart eats it all up, delighting in the frenzy of sensations that rock though my body, consuming me to the point of tears.

  It’s stupid how good that was. It was stupid good. Yeah.

  In a tangled wet mess on the floor, it’s as though I’m floating on a cloud, far from reality. My heart rejoices and my body hums, now alive as it should have been years ago.

  Quade pants about as much as I do. Of all places, I’d never imagined the first time we’d be together would be on a bathroom floor.

  “Holy jalapeños,” I mutter under my breath.

  Quade chuckles and reaches over to cup my boob in his hot hand.

  “Can I ask you something?” I ask, placing my hand over his.

  “Anything,” he says, breathless.

  Will he think I’ve lost it? “Do you think it’s possible to get drunk from an orgasm?”

  “Why? How are you feeling?”

  “Wasted. Like I can’t get up or configure speech.”

  “Then yes, you’re drunk. Love-drunk.”

  Love-drunk? Is this what it is?

  “It feels unbelievable.”

  When my shivering grows to the point that I huddle into Quade, he stands and helps me to my feet by pulling me up with both hands. He steadies me with a damp towel which he wraps around my back, tucking it under my arms and covering the majority of my body.

  He tilts his head forward and presses his lips to my forehead, and then picks up a towel and rubs it across his chest. “Give me a few minutes to settle down and then, we start over.”

  I choke on an incoming breath. “Again?”

  “I’m not done with you yet. Not by a long shot, Peppi. The deal is done.”

  “Done?”

  “You and me, Lace. We’re a thing. We just sealed the deal.”

  Oh, how long I’ve waited for us to be a thing. Today might just be the best day of my life.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The next morning, I awake with an ache in my body that I’ve never experienced before. It’s as if I’ve climbed the ropes in gym class over and over, then run the obstacle course for hours. I sweep my finger over my swollen lips, the tenderness a reminder that those lips were put to good use, kissing Quade as he took my body to heights I’ve never experienced nor could have imagined. Three times, to be precise. We’d attempted a fourth, but I’d got a cramp in my foot that riddled me unfit for play. It was probably a sign to take it easy. Quade promised to go out and buy me magnesium tablets today, to help out with cramps. How thoughtful of him.

  I sneak out of bed, go to the toilet and then splash water on my face. My hair is wild, but it’s not that I’m worried about, but rather my breath. I reckon I’d shatter this mirror if I got up real close and breathed. I use my finger as a toothbrush, spreading striped paste on it and rubbing it over my teeth. I rinse well and creep back under the covers. The giant stirs.

  “Tell me if I’m being over-confident, but I’m thinking I need to start planning our second date,” his sexy morning voice rumbles.

  I can’t help but laugh. “I might need a little time to recover first. I’m sore. Like all-over sore,” I tell him, spooning in against his warm body. “I’d happily wake up every day feeling like this … with you beside me.” The ache between my legs reminds me of where he’s been and where I want him again … after I recover first.

  He shuffles his body onto his back, gliding an arm beneath my head. I use his bicep for a pillow and curl my leg over the top of his thighs and run my hand over his pecs. His muscles flinch as I toy with one of his nipples, which pebbles into a tight bud within seconds.

  “I’m beginning to think that a Thursday night wasn’t the best night to pull out the big guns.”

  “Why’s that?” I ask through a yawn.

  “Because now I’ve got you in my bed, and after last night, the last thing I wanna do is get dressed and have to go to work.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, I’m missing out too. I’ll be slicing salami and all I’ll be able to think about is this.” I slide my hand down between his legs and moan as I find a hard length, which I’m certain is sensitive after its part in shattering my world last night.

  Quade covers his groin with both hands. “Hmm, not the kind of visual I was hoping for this morning.”

  I roll my whole body onto him and he grips my arse cheeks in both his hands, squeezing until he elicits a groan from me.

  “Why did today have to be Friday?” he whines, and presses his mouth to my sensitive lips for a soft kiss.

  “I know it’s not ideal that we don’t have the day off together, but for me, today is kind of a big deal.”

  “That you woke up with me? That you currently have me hard as a hammer. What?” Mischief dances in his eyes.

  “That’s all a big deal, yes, but this morning I’ll be submitting my final assignment. The last one for my diploma.”

  Quade moves one hand up my side and circles his thumb over my cheek. “I’m proud of you,” he whispers.

  I close my eyes for a brief moment and then let out a slow breath.

  “I hope you’re proud of you. You should be,” he whispers.

  “I am, it’s just …” Tears well in my eyes, and I feel like a stupid emotional girl in a movie that everyone thinks is a pathetic sook. “It’s still not enough. I’m yet to figure it all out.” The mystery of Faith’s death, finding a job—it’s daunting as hell.

  “Lace, sometimes you have to take one day at a time, you know? Otherwise it can get on top of you. Trust me, I know all about putting pressure on myself.”

  Quade wraps his arms around me. I listen to the solid beating of his heart as I take a moment to think about taking it one day at a time.

  A phone beeps in a series of high tones from out in the living area.

  Quade kisses me and then turns his body, so I move onto my side. The sheet is pulled back, and Quade steps out of bed. The taut muscles in his back and arms roll and flex as he stretches his arms towards the ceiling.

  “I’d better check my phone. One of the teachers might not be coming in today, so I might have to shift classes around.”

  His glorious buns co
ntract with each step as he walks from the room. Such a beautiful sight. I’m so lucky.

  I wrap the sheet around my body and roll onto his pillow, breathing in the combination of the smell of him and me and sex, which has infiltrated the crisp cotton sheets. I close my eyes, not wanting to move from this heaven.

  “You know how I missed that call last night?” he asks, walking back into the room. I flip the unruly hair from my face and look up to see his eyes firmly focused on the phone in his hand.

  “It’s burnt into my memory,” I say through a laugh, remembering us both yelling out in unison, with equal frustration. “Who was it?”

  “Ha, my mother,” he says in a low tone and shakes his head.

  The mention of his mum when we’re both naked is an instant mood-killer. She would be most unimpressed with this situation. I can’t withhold the groan that rumbles up my throat.

  “What did she want?” I ask with little interest.

  “It was as if she was on her deathbed at first, but she was simply ringing to tell me to hurry up and collect the boxes with my old school stuff in it. And then she sent a follow-up text. And then again this morning.”

  “Wow. She must really want you to pick them up.”

  “She’s sending in painters soon so she can freshen the room up before the new gym equipment arrives. I don’t know why she’s bothering though. A month after she’s got the fancy new machines they’ll be gathering dust, just like every other fad. Instead of blowing all that dough, her money could be put towards something useful.”

  “Yeah, that stuff is expensive.” She should just get a push-bike and get some fresh air.

  “You know we battle every year to provide decent sports equipment for the kids. Fundraising helps, yet someone like my mother would happily squander it.”

  “I didn’t realise you had to fundraise for that stuff. Don’t parents have to pay for it as a part of their school fees?”

  “It’s a public school, so school fees aren’t mandatory. Government funding can only take us so far.”

  “Wow, I didn’t know that.” I sit up and stretch my arms overhead, yawning.

  “Come on, Peppi. Get that sexy arse in the shower, and then we have to get going.” Quade pulls my arms and drags me from the bed onto my feet.