Convincing Cara (Wishing Well, Texas Book 2) (21 page)

And, in opposition to that piece was the giddy-as-a-schoolgirl serving, because the night had been my dream come true. Not only had Trace been attentive and flirty all night, but we’d joked around, had fun, and easily picked out what show to binge-watch. He’d made me feel like no one else in this world existed. With just a look, a touch, or a word, he made me feel sexier than I’d ever known I could.

He listened to me. He saw me. He knew me.

To have his undivided attention was like having the sun shine on me, and I didn’t want to entertain the thought of how cold it would be back in the shadows once his attention turned to someone else.

In an attempt to shake that thought loose from the stronghold it seemed to have on my brain, I figured that it was best to go to bed. Trace had been out for the last forty minutes of the episode of
House of Cards
we were watching, and my plan was to grab him a blanket from the closet and then head off to my room for a night that I was sure would be filled with tossing and turning. How could it not be when Trace was just feet away from me?

As tempting as it was to snuggle in closer to him and spend another night safe and sound in his strong embrace, that would have been playing with fire. And chances were I would end up getting burned. First degree burns.

Against everything inside me screaming not to leave the comfort of Trace’s embrace, I somehow willed myself to pull away. I didn’t get far though. Before I even made it an inch, Trace’s hand on my hip flexed, clamping me in place.

I shot my gaze back to his face. His eyes were still closed, and his face looked just as serene as it had moments ago.

Was it just a reflex?

Slowly, I began rising, but I froze when he said, “Where are you going?”

This time when I looked back at him, his caramel eyes were at half-mast and staring right at me.

My heart was pounding like I’d just been caught doing something I shouldn’t have. Because of that, my voice was shaky as I explained, “I was going to go to bed.”

“Without me?” His extra-gravelly sleepy voice sent tremors rolling through me.

“You were sleeping, so I didn’t want to disturb you,” I said so breathlessly that I could have been a phone-sex operator.

“I wasn’t sleeping, just resting my eyes.” He tugged me even closer to him.

I couldn’t help the smile that broke out on my face. “Really? Do you always snore when you
rest your eyes
?”

His eyes widened. “I was snoring?”

“No. And you would know that if you
really had
just been resting your eyes,” I teased.

Amusement danced in his gaze as he raised one eyebrow and a small smirk lifted on his face. The next thing I knew, I was flat on my back, with Trace hovering above me. The shock caused me to giggle. In our new position, I opened my legs and wrapped them around his body. When he settled against the apex of my thighs, I stopped laughing.

He was hard. Very hard. And on top of me.

Maybe the forecast was changing.

His gaze turned serious as he looked down at me. “You are so beautiful.”

I’d heard that guys said a lot of things just to say them when they were going to have sex, but when Trace told me that, it was really hard not to believe him. Our jagged breaths mingled as he rested his forehead against mine.

“I want to kiss you so bad right now.” He sounded pained, and all I wanted to do was relieve his suffering.

Tilting my head, I pressed my lips to his, and for a moment, he remained still. A brief flash of insecurity burst through me. I wondered if I’d done something wrong. If
he
wanted to kiss
me
, not the other way around. All of those doubts evaporated after a groan vibrated from his lips as he cupped the back of my head and deepened the kiss.

When our tongues met, a fire I
did
want to play with sparked in me. Heat flared like I’d never experienced as his masterful tongue slowly glided back and forth across mine. Every anxiety, every doubt, and every second thought in my consciousness disappeared under the tantalizing pull of Trace’s spine-tingling kiss.

I was like Oprah, and being kissed by Trace was my
ultimate
favorite thing. He stoked the flames of need burning in me with each languorous lick. I gripped his shoulders as I let myself fall down the rabbit hole to Wonderland. I had no idea what was in store for me, but now that all the insecurity I’d been battling was vapor, I wanted to explore this new land.

Last night had been amazing, and as much as I would have loved a repeat performance, I wanted more. I wanted to feel Trace inside me. When Trace’s mouth began kissing down my neck, I knew that this was my moment to express what I wanted to happen. But, with the lust fogging up my brain, I didn’t have the mental aptitude to execute that simple task.

“Trace, I don’t… I think…I want…”

He stilled, then lifted up so that he was gazing down at me, his eyes searching mine. “We can go slow, as slow as you need. I just want to kiss you. Please, Cara. Let me kiss you. Everything else can wait.”

If I had been on the fence about whether or not this night was the night, the desperation in Trace’s voice just to
kiss
me would have knocked me right over into the sexy-time yard.

This was another side of Trace I was not used to seeing: the vulnerable side. And it might have been the one I loved the most, because I was pretty sure most people didn’t see it.

I threaded my fingers through his hair as I explained, “I wasn’t stopping. I was trying to tell you that I want…”

Even though I had never been more certain of anything in my life, my heartrate still picked up speed like it was a snowball in an avalanche on Mt. Everest. Taking a deep breath, I tried again. “I don’t want to go slow. I love it when you kiss me, but I want more. I don’t want to wait for…” I took a much-needed breath, about to say
another minute to feel you inside me
when Trace spoke first.

“Are you about to quote
Dawson’s Creek
?” He tilted his head to the side, and his brow furrowed.

“What?” I had no idea what he was talking about. Yes, I loved
Dawson’s Creek
(Team Pacey!), but why would Trace have brought up my favorite show now?

“You know… ‘I don’t want to wait for our lives to be over.’”

I couldn’t help but smile at the absurdity of those words coming out of Trace’s mouth. “How do you know that?”

“Are you serious? You, Harm, and Destiny used to watch that show all. The. Time. I’ve probably heard that theme song a million times. It’s seared into my brain.”

The corners of my mouth lifted in an even wider smile at how adorable that was. “Oh, okay. Well, no. That’s not what I was about to say.”

My cheeks heated as I thought about what I had planned on saying. Trace was staring down at me, and I saw the second that he registered my deepening blush. A bad-boy grin—that made every tingle in my body multiply by a thousand—pulled on Trace’s magical mouth.

“I think I’m going to like what you were about to say,” he said.

The wicked glint in his eye helped give me the push to tell him what I wanted, but my voice was still a little wobbly. “I was just going to say that…last night was great. Amazing. But I want to… to feel you inside me.”

For several seconds, which seemed like an eternity, Trace didn’t say anything. He didn’t move a muscle. There was no hint of what he was thinking until he growled, “Say that again. The last part—say that again.”

My body surged with renewed lust. Who knew that someone’s asking you to repeat yourself could be such a turn-on? This time there was no wobble when I spoke.

“I want to feel you inside me.”

I squealed as he snatched me up and off the couch and carried me down towards my bedroom. As I held on, my arms encircling Trace’s neck, I closed my eyes and reminded myself to commit every second of this night to memory. I didn’t want to overthink this; I just wanted to be in the moment and experience everything to the fullest.

Instead of laying me on the bed like I’d expected, Trace set me on the floor. The second my feet hit the hardwood, he had my tank top up and over my head. I hadn’t even lowered my arms before he was pulling my shorts and my underwear down my legs. I gripped the rounded muscle of his shoulders as I stepped out of them.

Before I had the chance to feel any kind of shyness over my naked state, Trace peeled his shirt off and made quick work of his boots and his jeans. I watched, completely awestruck. He didn’t just have a good or sexy body; he had the kind of physique that inspired artists to carve marble. From his broad chest to the muscles that rippled down his arms and his abs, he was prime male perfection.

When he straightened from stepping out of his shoes, my gaze shot down to the impressive erection jutting out from a scattering of dark hair. This was the first penis I’d seen in real life, so I might not have been an expert on size, but he looked big. Really big. I sucked in a sharp breath when it jumped up a little, which caused the inner walls of my core to contract.

“If you keep looking at me like that, this is going to be over before it starts.”

“Oh, sorry,” I apologized as I tore my gaze away from his groin. I wasn’t sure how I’d been looking at him, but I definitely didn’t want this to be over.

The wicked grin on his face and the gleam in his eye told me that I had nothing to worry about.

“Lie down.”

Those two words coiled deep in my belly. I backed up, and as I climbed onto the bed and scooted up towards the headboard, a now-familiar pressure was already building in my core. My breathing was coming in shorter and shorter pants as I lay down, settling against the pillows. Closing my eyes for a moment, I reminded myself to experience and not fight the anticipation racing through my veins.

The bed dipped, and before I even lifted my heavy lids, Trace’s hands wrapped around my knees. When I did open my eyes, I watched as he spread my legs apart and moved between them so that his face was only inches away from my sex.

Out of pure instinct, I started to close my legs, but his shoulders were blocking their path.

“Trace…” Being naked in front of him was one thing, but having his face up close and personal with my lady parts was another.

His gaze met mine, and he asked a question that took me by surprise.

“Do you think I would ever hurt you?”

“No,” I answered automatically.

“Do you trust that I know how to make you feel good?”

There was no hesitation in my response. “Yes.”

“Then relax.”

I let my legs fall to the side, giving him total access to my body. Trace began running his fingers up and down my folds. Every time he reached the top of my sex, his finger would circle the place I wanted him to touch me the most and head back down again. I softly groaned in frustration as my hands knotted in the comforter.

When my hips started seeking release, Trace leaned forward and placed an open-mouthed kiss to the sensitive spot he’d ignored with his fingertips. The sensation of his tongue pressing against my clit caused me to gasp. His fingers continued rubbing my seam as his mouth covered my nub. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the pleasure whipping through me as he intimately licked, kissed, and massaged me.

With each pass of his tongue and brush of his finger, I skyrocketed towards my release. I let myself be carried away in wave after wave of ecstasy. My body began fluttering with climax as Trace pushed his finger inside of me. At the intrusion, I went up and over the edge, exploding into a thousand tiny pieces.

I cried out as Trace continued laving the hood of my sex over and over again, his finger pushing in and pulling out of me with measured strokes. The sensation was almost intolerable as my orgasm stretched on and on, making me mindless with pleasure. I was still floating as the final spasm claimed me.

When I finally returned to my senses, I opened my eyes to find Trace opening a condom wrapper. I knew the importance of safe sex, but I also knew that, if I ever wanted to get pregnant, it was going to take a lot more than sex, thanks to the effects the chemo had on my body.

In that moment, I wanted to feel Trace, and I wanted him to feel me.

“You don’t need that,” I said softly as I tried to catch my breath.

His gaze, full of questions, met mine.

“I’m not… You can’t get me pregnant, and I don’t have any STD’s, obviously.” I let out a small, self-deprecating laugh.

“I don’t have any, either. I’ve never had unprotected sex.”

Since I’d spent a lot of time at the Briggses’ house while growing up, I knew that safe sex was not optional. The Briggs boys had definitely been raised to use protection.

“You can if you want—”

My words were cut off when the condom dropped out of Trace’s hand and he moved over me. His lips brushed mine as he said, “I don’t want to.”

I didn’t get the chance to respond, because his mouth covered mine in a kiss that consumed every brain cell I had.

Trace

“They fit like moonshine in a mason jar.”

~ Dolly Briggs

A
s I kissed
Cara, I tried to think of anything other than the fact that I was seconds away from making love to her without anything between us. That her naked body was beneath me. That her nails were digging into my back like she needed to feel me more than she needed her next breath. I was already a second away from coming, so if I’d let myself absorb the reality, I wouldn’t have even made it past the starting gate.

But, on the flipside, I wanted to be as present as possible. This was a once-in-a-lifetime moment I wanted to be fully engaged in. This wasn’t just sex. This wasn’t just being someone’s first. This was Cara. The only girl I’d ever loved. I had fantasized about this happening. Dreamed it would happen. Hoped and wished for this to happen for so long that I couldn’t remember not wanting to be with her. This was a life-changing event I wanted to memorize every second of.

How could I possibly remain distant and engaged? It was like trying to balance a bowling ball and a bag of bricks while walking a tight rope.