Educating Holden (Wishing Well, Texas Book 11)

by Melanie Shawn

  “Yep.” Her smile was tight. “A nice guy that’s out with my sister right now.”

  “Molly?”

  She pointed. “That’s the one.”

  “So, wait…he was dating you and now he’s dating Molly?!” It sounded like a storyline on Sunset Bay.

  “It sounds worse than it is.” She sighed as her shoulders dropped. “It’s not that scandalous.”

  Her energy was off. She wasn’t her usual sunshine self. I took a step forward and noticed that she had dark circles under her eyes. “Are you okay?”

  I’d been asked that question so many times after my fall that I’d promised myself I would never ask anyone if they were okay.

  “I’m fine. Just tired.”

  Her smile was forced and didn’t reach her eyes. I wanted to reach out and pull her into my arms. I put my hands in my pockets to stop myself from breaking even more promises to myself. I swore that I would never cross that line with her again.

  “It’s been a long night,” she sighed. “I’m just ready for it to be over.”

  I’m not.

  She started to turn and I asked, “Do you want a drink?”

  As soon as the cheesy line came out of my mouth, I wished I could hop in a time machine and go back thirty seconds just to not say it.

  Her head turned slowly back to me. When she looked at me her forehead was creased in confusion. She just stared at me for a beat before asking, “What about Kenna?”

  “What about Kenna?” I repeated, putting my emphasis on the word what instead of Kenna like she had.

  “Don’t you think she’d be upset if I came in for a drink?”

  “I have no idea, but it’s not really any of her business.”

  “Aren’t you two…” She waved her hand. “I saw her sitting with you and your family tonight.”

  I didn’t kiss and tell, but I did not-kiss and tell. “My mom invited her. I didn’t know she was going to be there.”

  She turned around all the way so she was facing me. “What about Luciana?”

  It took me by surprise that she even knew who Luci was. I’d never brought Luci back to Wishing Well. But then again, Bentley knew about her so she’d probably found out from him.

  “What about her?” I asked.

  “Is she still your girlfriend?”

  “She wasn’t ever my girlfriend.”

  “Oh.”

  I took a step toward her, needing to be closer to her. “Did you think she was my girlfriend?”

  “Bentley mentioned it, and then you were so…after we…hooked up,” she explained without actually explaining.

  “You think I would have had sex with you if I had a girlfriend?”

  At that moment I realized just how much Olivia’s opinion of me mattered.

  “No…I mean…I don’t know.”

  As much as it hurt me that she’d think I’d cheat on a girlfriend, I knew I only had myself to blame. She knew me as a kid, but she’d never known me as a man.

  That felt wrong to me. Very wrong.

  “Can we go inside?” I asked, knowing full well that if she agreed, another promise would definitely be broken.

  “Okay.” Her answer was tentative, which I knew was my fault as well.

  As we walked to the door, I thought about the things I could tell her to explain my behavior and make her see that I wasn’t the sort of man that would cheat on a girlfriend. I would never have been with her if I was in a relationship. I also wanted to try and explain my feelings for her and why things were so complicated. I was busy formulating a mental bullet point presentation to present to her when we stepped inside and I shut the door behind me and was struck by a feeling I didn’t recognize.

  It took me a second to realize that it was home. Not the physical building, but rather the feeling of being home. Maybe it was because I’d never really had a home, per se, because I traveled over forty weeks a year so nowhere actually felt like home. But whatever the reason, right now, maybe for the first time since I was a kid I felt like I was home.

  After shutting the door, the click of the lock had my heart racing even faster. Olivia and I were alone. Alone in the same place that we’d finally consummated our relationship. I turned to her and what I saw in her eyes only amplified the intimacy of the moment. The closeness we shared was undeniable. Even my mom had said she’d seen it when we were in our own bubble.

  I didn’t know who moved first, but without saying a word we closed the distance between us and our lips met. The kiss started out soft, almost tentative. Unlike the roaring fire of need burning in me, this kiss was a slow burn.

  Kissing had always felt like a means to an end to me. I’d enjoyed the physical act, but it was usually because it led to something more.

  It wasn’t like that with Olivia. With her, I lost myself in the connection. Our kissing was deeper than just the physical, I felt it deep in my soul.

  When her lips parted, our tongues met and she moaned into my mouth as her hips rocked against me. I wrapped my right hand around the base of her neck and tilted her head back, giving me better access to the depths of her mouth. I held her in place as I poured all of the pent up passion and desire that had been building up in me like a pressure cooker without a release valve.

  As our kiss deepened, my left hand slid down her body, over her hip, and along her outer thigh. When I touched bare skin, I slid back, gripping the back of her leg and lifting it up. The position brought her core in direct contact with my rock-hard erection, trapped behind its zippered prison.

  Acting purely on animalistic urges, I bunched the material of her skirt up in my hands and pulled it up. Our kiss broke as she lifted her hands over her head. The motion caused her beautiful, full breasts to bounce sending my arousal spiking to red zone territory.

  Dropping down to my knees, I tugged her panties down her legs. She reached out and held onto me to balance herself as she stepped out of them. Before she set her right foot down, I lifted her leg and placed it on my shoulder. Her sex glistened in front of me and I felt like a starving man seeing a juicy steak.

  The last time we were together, I’d barely been able to participate. I’d relinquished the lead to her because I hadn’t been physically up to the task. But tonight was different. I was getting stronger every day.

  Right that second, I was feeling no pain. I was pretty sure that had more to do with the adrenaline and arousal coursing through me than anything else. It turned out that sitting on the grass for an hour and a half was not the best thing for me after all. After the movie, on the short drive home, I’d been in considerable discomfort. But as soon as I’d seen Olivia walking in front of me, all of that had gone away. And now that I was on my knees between her legs, I felt like Superman. I was invincible.

  I slid my hand up her thigh and ran my knuckles along her folds, teasing her. She took in a shaky breath and I flipped my hand over. With my middle and forefinger, I traced her tight opening. The tips of my digits intimately massaged her soft, dewy flesh. Up and down I easily slid along her arousal coated seam, her breaths growing shallower with each pass. I watched as her sex contracted with need.

  As much as I loved exploring her by touch and sight, I wanted more. I needed to taste her. Using my finger, I parted her flesh and pressed an open mouth kiss to her delicate core.

  The moment the tip of my tongue brushed over her swollen nub she shuddered against me. I licked and suckled her pleasure button as I pushed one, then two fingers into her tight passage. My tongue fluttered across her clit as my lips sealed over her in suctioning kisses.

  “Oh yes…yes…right there…yes…don’t stop…yes…” she panted. Each word of encouragement sounded more desperate than the last.

  White-hot need rushed through my body, but I wasn’t thinking of my own release. I lost myself in the sweetness of her taste and the velvety softness of her flesh. It took me by surprise when her hips jerked, and her entire body trembled with release. Her tight passage began constricting around my fingers. />
  She reached down and fisted my hair in her hands, keeping me in place. Not that I wanted to go anywhere. I’d happily stay right there, between her legs, making love to her with my mouth and fingers forever. But all too soon, her thighs began to relax and grow heavy on my shoulder and her fingers uncurled. Sensing that her orgasm was waning I pressed three more tender kisses against her now very sensitive flesh and stood.

  “That felt…wow…” Her eyes fluttered open and I could see that they were clouded with post-orgasmic bliss.

  As much as I’d love to let her float in her altered state, my erection was pressing painfully against my zipper and every cell in my body was screaming for me to be inside of her.

  “These past two weeks have been torture,” I confessed.

  “They have?” Her eyes widened and her lips parted.

  I traced first her upper, then lower lip with my thumb, something I’d noticed made her cheeks flush each time I did it. “It took self-control I didn’t even know I had not to go next door and…”

  “And what?” she asked breathlessly.

  “And fuck you.”

  “Oh.” Her lips remained in the shape of an O as the flush on her cheeks deepened. Her breaths were coming in short pants. “That would have been…nice.”

  Hearing the adjective she used sent an urgency rushing through me and my hands gripped her hips and I flipped her around so she was facing the wall.

  “No,” I gritted out as I lifted her arms above her head. Keeping her hands pinned above her with one hand I unzipped my jeans and released my straining erection. Then, with my free hand, I tilted her hips up and positioned the head of my cock at her wet opening. She gasped at my shameless statement and I slid my hard shaft along her slick folds. I teased her. I pressed my head to her opening but I didn’t push inside. Instead, I just ran it up and down her damp folds. A whimper fell from her lips as she arched her back. Leaning down, I growled against her ear, “Nothing I want to do to you is nice.”

  Chapter 24

  Olivia

  “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.”

  ~ Maggie Calhoun

  “Nothing I want to do to you is nice.” Holden’s deep voice and bold words reverberated through me.

  Having him want me with such a savage desire caused me to be dizzy with lust. My fingertips scraped the wall trying to anchor myself to it. The callouses on Holden’s palms brushed against my wrists as he held me in place. The friction from the rough texture of his work-worn hands heightened the experience causing a shock of bliss to explode in my core. Tingles of excitement and swirls of euphoria combined priming my body. It wouldn’t take much for me to go up and over the edge again.

  When he’d dropped down to his knees in front of me, it had shocked me in the most delicious way. I’d always been a little shy when it came to receiving oral sex. It felt so much more intimate than any other sex act to me. But I wasn’t with Holden. When he’d lifted my leg, bringing his face within an inch of the apex of my thighs and I’d felt his breath on my feminine folds, it felt like a physical touch. I’d almost climaxed on the spot, just from his stare and the air from his lungs feathering over me. Once he touched me and kissed me, I came apart in an earth-shattering climax.

  The first time we were together had almost felt like a dream. When I played it back in my head, it was almost as if I’d had an out-of-body experience and I was on the outside looking in. This time, I wanted to be in my body. And I wanted to remember every detail of our encounter.

  I turned my head to the side and the solid, smooth coolness of the wall pressed against my cheek. I was doing my best to be in the moment, to be present.

  “Do you want me to be nice?” His raspy voice sent a shiver racing down my spine as his lips grazed my outer ear.

  “No.” My answer came out sounding like a plea, and that’s exactly how it felt.

  The pressure of his swollen tip at my opening was sending signals to my brain that I couldn’t ignore. I wanted him so badly. My body craved him. These past weeks hanging out in the friend zone had been miserable for me. Knowing that he’d been wanting me as much as I’d been wanting him was more of a turn-on than anything I’d ever felt before.

  “Ah,” I whimpered as he began to push into me, and I braced myself for the force of his thrust.

  But instead of continuing to push in, he stopped. I felt his forehead rest on my shoulder. His breaths were shallow, and I immediately grew concerned. Had he hurt himself when he’d been on his knees going down on me? Was standing up like this too much for his back? Should I take over again? I wanted to speak up and say something, but I didn’t want to kill the mood, so I waited.

  “Fuck, you’re so tight.” He finally gritted out as his fingers tightened their grip around my wrists sending a signal down to my core causing it to clench with need. “You feel so good. Too good.”

  My hips rolled of their own accord, pulling him a fraction deeper and he sucked in a hissing breath.

  “Don’t.” The bravado of his deep-voiced command vibrated through me causing a shivering thrill to run from the top of my head to the tips my toes. “Don’t. Move.”

  “I didn’t mean to.” I hadn’t voluntarily moved a muscle.

  He lifted his head and removed his hand from my hip. The next thing I felt was my hair being brushed off my neck to the side. A cool burst of air and the touch of his lips softly grazing along the newly revealed area made the tiny hairs on my arms stand up. As he placed soft kisses up and down my neck, his hand reached around and cupped my breast.

  With each press of his lips, each squeeze of his hand, he pushed into me in incremental measures. It wasn’t inch by inch, it was millimeter by millimeter. Pressure built low in my belly as I surrendered to all of the sensations I was experiencing.

  His unhurried tempo was its own form of sensual torment. When he’d said that nothing he wanted to do to me was nice, I’d expected him to take me hard and fast. I’d braced myself for rough and dirty and this was gentle and intimate.

  Slow swirls of pleasure began to build low in my belly causing my thighs to tremble. In the back of my mind, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to stay standing. My legs felt like noodles as all the strength drained out of them. I tried to use the wall as leverage to brace myself, but my knees still buckled.

  Holden must have sensed the shift in my bodyweight because the next thing I knew, the hand that had been kneading my breasts was back on my hip and he was steadying me. He let go of my wrists and my arms dropped. They didn’t fall down beside me, instead my hands were now flattened on the wall on either side of my face. His arm snaked around my waist and his hold caused my hips to tilt up. The new angle allowed him to drive deeper inside of me.

  My inner walls stretched to accommodate him, and I cried out. After just a second of pain, the sting of intrusion dulled into heavy, pulsating pleasure. As soon as the sharp tension eased, he pulled out and pushed into me again. Once again, I felt a sting which was immediately followed by a deep, aching pleasure.

  “Yes,” I whimpered. “Yes.”

  The next thrust was a little harder and made a slapping sound. I’d never really paid attention to sounds before. But this encounter had built up at such a slow pace that I was hyperaware of everything I was experiencing.

  I’d heard theories that when one of your senses were deprived, the others would overcompensate and become even more heightened. That was what I felt like, except none of my senses were compromised. The slapping sound was added to the soundtrack of our synchronized breathing and the pounding of my heart. The aroma of his musk surrounded me, cocooning me in his masculine scent. My mouth watered with the taste of his tongue still fresh in my mouth.

  Every cell in my body was alive with tingling awareness as he drove into me again and again. His arm tightened around me and I could feel his body tensing as he grew larger inside of me. Knowing that he was close to the edge was enough to put me up and over it.

  A tsunami of pleas
ure crashed over me, overwhelming me with its force. Surge after surge of intense orgasmic release crested and fell and I rode the waves all the way to the sands of sensual gratification. As I drifted back to myself, I felt my entire body go limp. If I was relying on my own strength, I would have surely crumbled to the ground if not for Holden who picked me up, cradling me in his arms.

  “What are you doing?” I squealed as my legs flew up in the air and my arms wrapped around his neck.

  “I’m taking you to bed.”

  “What about your back?!”

  “It’s better.”

  When he started up the stairs, I asked, “Where are we going?”

  It was a stupid question because, obviously, I knew the answer. What I’d meant was, why was he going up the stairs? Even if his back was better, that had to be pushing it.

  “To bed.”

  I almost protested, but I stopped myself. Maybe his back really was better, and I didn’t want to be a nag. Also, even though in the back of my mind, I wasn’t sure this whole caveman thing was a good idea, I couldn’t deny how sexy it was.

  When we got into the bedroom, he laid me down on the bed and hovered above me. As I stared up into his eyes, I saw that the walls were down once again. I saw my friend. My best friend staring back at me. I just hoped they would stay down this time.

  With gentle tenderness, he brushed back several strands of hair that had fallen into my face. “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry? For what?” Had he heard my inner thoughts? Did he know how much it had hurt me when he closed me out after the first time we were together?

  “I asked you if you wanted me to be nice, and you said no. But once I felt you, I knew that I had no choice of whether or not to be nice if I wanted to last more than point five seconds.” His lips curved up in a sexy half grin that promised of very naughty things to come. “But don’t worry. This time, I won’t be.”

  He tilted my head to the side and bit my neck, Edward Cullen style before licking and sucking the now sensitized area. My entire body lit up like the floats in the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland ready for round two. And that’s exactly what we shared.