Swap Out (26 page)

I pet her soothingly, letting the heat of her soak through my fingers and find my veins so it can claim me as hers, but when my thumb nudges her clit her eyes close and her head falls back, and that I can’t abide. I want to watch her.

My hand on her waist slides up her back until I can cup her neck, threading my fingers into her hair as my others stroke insatiably into her, and I tilt her face back down to mine. She’s panting as her forehead touches my own, her body writhing with sensation and I graze her clit once more. She squeaks and her legs tighten around me, shaking everywhere her skin is against mine, and I curl my fingers and find the spot I know so well but haven’t bid my love to in way too long.

One simple stroke against it and she spasms as slick warmth tightens and pulses around my knuckles and I crash my mouth to hers, swallowing her moan as she clings to me in every way she can. Her nails score my neck and her thighs are bruisingly tight around my waist, but her body is soft and every definition of perfect and sexy and I don’t stop, nowhere near ready to lose this feeling.

It’s been so long and I’ve missed it so much, that moment when she lets go and gives herself completely, trusting me with her body and protection and pleasure. It’s a gift I don’t want to ever take for granted.

But that also means I have to be careful, to listen to her, and when she starts to squirm more than roll like she’s aching for more, I pull out of her and settle my hand on her back. Her head collapses on my shoulder as she tries to catch her breath, a smile tugging at my lips when she whispers, “That was…”

She blows out a breath and shakes her head in a daze, and I kiss the luxurious skin of her bare neck, my lips worshiping the taste of her that’s beaded with water. She’s sweet and salty, smells like home and feels like pure sex.

My thumb rubs over the pad of my fingers and when I find I can still feel the silk of her on me, my cock throbs jealously, hardening even further and I’m not sure how that’s possible, why I’m not jumping on every instinct I have to take her. But something in my head whispers how I don’t want to rush her, not after everything it’s taken to get us here again.

Unfortunately, my hands and body are not agreeing with my conscience, my hips tilting up so I can rub myself against her. A low moan slips out from between her lips, and then her mouth is on my neck, my eyes rolling back when she begins kissing a trail up to my jaw and nipping at the lobe of my ear.

“Now, Luca,” she breathes, and my eyes fly open. “Please. I can’t wait anymore.”

I shove my swim shorts down my thighs, then just say fuck it and take them off completely, flinging them up onto the bank. Her body shakes when she feels that I’m now bare before her, but when the bump in her stomach brushes mine, everything slows down to a place I’ve only felt with her once before, and it was the night before she told me. Before wrong became right and never became now.

My hand cradles her cheek as I press my mouth to hers, something in the lingering of her lips becoming infinitely sweeter. And how she does it, I’ll never know, but I hear the words she doesn’t say and I feel them in every part of me.

I shift her a little lower, my body still taut with anticipation even as the inside of my chest is suddenly free from fear, and when I rock against her and get the faintest hint of what’s waiting for me, she gasps.

“Luca,” she says worriedly, and I steal a soft kiss from her lips.

“It’s okay,” I promise. “We’ll go slow, and be very careful.”

She takes a deep breath, then nods. “I trust you.”

Heat blossoms in my chest at hearing her finally say it, and I pull her legs a little closer around me. Goosebumps rise over her skin, and very carefully, I begin to press into her. Air rushes out of my lungs when I feel her stretch around me, slick heat that nearly buckles my control I’ve missed it so much. But I need more and I know she does too, because Zoe’s nails draw down my back, her hand flattening over my spine in a wordless plea, and when I do as she bids and find the deepest part of her, this time she’s the one who loses her breath.

“God, that feels…” she trails off, her cheek brushing mine as I loosely nod in agreement, and just as I promised, we’re slow as we start to feel one another, cautious strokes punctuated by deep moans, relearning what it is to be together. And more than that, how to be together
now
.

Because it used to be war, fighting for control and damn near clawing each other apart in our greed to take what we wanted, and the thirst is still there. It’s in the craving I have to thrust harder, to let my fingers take command of her shoulders so I can drive into her until I lose myself somewhere along the way. It’s in the scrape of her teeth over my skin, taunting me to try resisting her. But now with every bite comes a kiss, with every stroke, a hand caressing skin. It’s still raw as she sinks down and I push up, but the deeper I bury myself inside of her, the stronger she holds me, the more passionate her kiss.

And the whole thing is just unreal: the water lightly breaking against our skin a comforting embrace; black shadows and slow flashes of silver as the clouds play Hide and Seek with the moon granting me a view of her that is almost godly in its magnificence. Her skin looks like creamy marble and her eyes are as bright as they are dark, hazy with desire and warm with affection, and I almost can’t take how beautiful she is. But even as my breath hitches at the sight of her, I need to feel her let go, to dissolve around me as she locks down, and I want it so much it’s driving me crazy.

I know the sound of her, how the pitch of her voice changes when she’s getting close and shifting once again when she’s there, and we’re on level two and I have to have it now because I’m never going to last with how good she feels.

I rewrap an arm around her shoulders, my other hand secure on the back of her thigh and when I thrust more firmly, she hides her face into my neck, her whole body trembling. Faster, harder, I dare to push until she’s holding her breath and then with one final stroke she seizes up and then loosens: her arms slackening as she grips my length inside with a ferocity I’ve never felt from her before, wave after wave pulsing the truth and I keep going, craving every moment of it she’ll give to me.

It goes on forever and not long enough, and before she’s finished I’m right there with her, my teeth gritted as heat bursts out of me and pumps long and hard, stealing thought and reason as it claims her for my own. A raw noise rips out of my throat as my head falls back because the heady throb of it won’t stop, and I feel her fingertip lay over my lips, and then as her mouth finds my own. The curve in her stomach nudges mine as she shifts and the knowledge jolts another eruption out of me, this one even more intense than the first. But the climax is as quick as it was sharp and when it abruptly cuts off, I barely have the awareness to remind myself not to let go.

I’m still holding Zoe even as I feel like I’m about to pass out, and the water surrounding us is supporting her weight but I can’t lose her. Not now. Her nails slide through my hair as she lets me rest my forehead on her shoulder, her calming pulse seeping from her lips into my temple as she whispers kisses against me, and it’s better than the first time I put on my beret because she is everything, absolutely everything.

I leave a long kiss on her shoulder before another, lighter one on her neck, and my lips take their time adoring each inch of her skin until I finally find her lips.

A lazy smirk tugs at my mouth as she kisses me soft and slow, because for all the times we were together in the past and how incredible it always was, it never felt like
that
. And what’s more, for the first time ever, she’s not going to get up and tug on her clothes, whisper a hurried goodbye and then walk out, leaving me to wonder if she’s ever coming back or if that was the last time. No more will I roll over in an empty bed and debate whether to call her back, to swallow an emptiness that is nearly unbearable when I breathe in the hint of lotion she left behind.

Tonight we will go home together, crawl under the same sheets and in the darkness, she will reach for me. Her hand will lace through mine and in the morning, I will breathe her in before I ever open my eyes and when I do, her smile will be the first thing I see.

I finally get to keep her, and the best part: it’s what we both want.

I kiss my endorphin-fueled bliss into her lips, loving that I can tell the exact moment when a smile curves her own because she has to be thinking the same thing as I am. But just in case, I make sure she knows exactly where I stand, and plan to sleep.

“Just try bailing on me tonight,” I tease, and she giggles. “I dare you to even think about it.”

“I don’t know,” she drawls, leaning her forehead against mine as her palm cradles my jaw. “Without tradition where would we be?”

“Constantly buying batteries for your—”

“Hey! You there, in the water!” a voice calls out and my head whips to the side, seeing a white stream of light from a hundred yards away bouncily making its way towards us.

“Shit,” I mutter, releasing Zoe so she can speedily retie her bikini bottoms over her left hip. But since she’s too busy staring at me: her eyes wide in alarm, her grin pure deviance, I end up batting her hands away so I can tie the string for her. I’ll probably have to cut it off with a knife considering the knot I just fastened, but at least she’s covered.

“Are you aware this area is closed to the public this time of night?” the voice asks, and when I check I can’t see if he’s wearing a uniform because it’s too damn dark and that flashlight blinded me so all I can see are spots, but it’s not worth the risk. I’ll never hear the end of it if I score Zoe an arrest record along with getting her pregnant.

“Go go go!” I rush out with a chuckle, nudging her towards the bank as the light comes closer.

“Are we going to get arrested?” Zoe whispers, and I snort and tow her the last few feet towards the edge of the stream.

“Not if we run.”

I burst out of the water as the voice yells for us to stop, then catch Zoe’s gasped declaration of, “Luca, you’re naked!”

“Sex wipe that from your memory, did it?” I taunt, helping her out of the water before snatching up a towel and wrapping it around my hips.

“Only you could be smug right now!” She laughs, grabbing the rest of our stuff.

“Sir, I’m going to ask again that you please stay where you are!” the voice yells and I grab Zoe’s hand and take off down the trail, her shocked laugh with me every step of the way.

I glance back over my shoulder to make sure the guy’s not running after us, but when I go to look forward, all I can see is Zoe’s smile as she hauls ass with me: her hair coming out from her rubber band and wearing nothing more than a white bikini and sopping tennis shoes, holding all our possessions in her right hand as I grip my towel with my left. But
her
left hand is laced firmly with my right one, and I can’t help the wide grin on my face.

“For the love of God,” I tell her, a laugh breaking up my words as we sprint faster when the guy yells once more for us to stop, “please tell me you have the car keys…”

*              *              *

I kick shut the front door behind me, the keys falling from my fingers along with my towel and dropping haphazardly to the floor because my hands have more important things to touch. I thread them into Zoe’s hair as she keeps kissing me, kissing me, kissing me, but my fingers don’t just want her hair, they want
all of her
.

I barely manage to toe off my shoes, and Zoe nearly falls as she tries to do the same, but she somehow manages to kick off her wet sneakers and I take a stumbly step towards her bedroom. My elbow catches on a corner but it doesn’t slow my hands, hasty in their need to search over her shoulders and down her back, under her t-shirt she put on in the car and then pulling it up and off. And as soon as I fling it away her hands and mouth come right back to me in an urgency that won’t be sated. But first I have to get her shorts off.

I unhook the button with my right hand as my left arm winds around her waist, lifting her up just enough to let gravity do the work for me. She giggles into my lips as the denim sluggishly slides off, Zoe kicking and squirming to help them disappear that much faster. A moan tears out of my throat when her leg tries to wrap around my waist, trusting me to hold her, but we’re still bumping our way out of the living room and against the walls, and when I reach down to hook a hand behind her knee, my erection throbs agonizingly at the feeling of her skin.

Hurriedly I tug at the strings tied over her back and neck, ripping her bikini top away and my eyes rolling back when her breasts rub against my bare chest. Her nipples are hard and begging to be teased, and my hand moves to the strings over her hip. Except I did tie a hell of a knot and it won’t come undone, but it’s not going to stop me.

I stop and prop her back against the hallway wall, boosting her higher up my body so both her legs are locked around my waist, and with my left hand feeling every inch of her body I can touch, my right one dips; two long fingers diving under white fabric and finding their place inside of her. She jumps and gasps, but she’s wet and delicious and I stroke greedily into her, swallowing her moans and curling my fingers as my thumb pets her clit and it’s nothing, no time at all before she’s screaming through gritted teeth and her head thrown back, heat melting over me as she rolls her body against mine.

I let her live in it for as long as I can, but I want to feel her and I’m nothing if not a selfish bastard. I pull out of her and make sure she’s secure in my grip, then push away from the wall and almost collapse when her fingers tickle down my abs between us and then grip my length with confident command. I fall back against the opposite wall, trying to remember not to crush her legs behind my back but she’s stroking me and rubbing my head all over her, teasing herself through her bikini bottoms and I want to watch her do it, to taste her and fuck her until I’m nothing left but skin over bones. And when she nudges the fabric aside and slides me against her center, I’m wild with need and I press up on my toes to enter her hastily, my hands firm on her hips so I can go deeper. But she squeezes me from inside, and that’s it, that’s all I’ve got.

My legs give and my back slides down the wall, but it’s thankfully slow enough that we land smoothly. Zoe never stops, and I doubt she noticed the change because she’s riding me like it’s her last night on earth and for all I care it might be mine: one of her hands fierce on my shoulder as the other stretches back to my bent knee to brace herself, and she leans gorgeously away. My eyes devour the image as the light plays off the colors of her, the darkness of her hair and the creaminess of her skin, the dusty pink of her nipples and I lean forward to enjoy it all.

And she tastes like glory, like faith and the crispness of gun powder next to red rocks and wind and freedom and I shift her onto the floor so she’s on her back. She laughs at the recklessness of the movement because I practically threw her, but I couldn’t wait and I don’t care because if she’s laughing then she’s fine. My tongue learns every curve while my hands finally rid her of the last piece of her bikini, my lips and mouth memorizing the velvet of her skin over her hips and down her stomach until I’m back home. My palm props her knee over my shoulder as her nails tug through my hair, my cock rubbing against the carpet beneath me and when my tongue dips inside of her, reveling in the orgasm she had because of me, I’m gone, somewhere else entirely that only exists of her.

She squeaks and spasms but pulls me closer, giving herself up to me as her knees fall open and I love it, love it, love it. I kiss her clit and scrape it with my teeth, drowning in her moans and the silk on my fingers as I stoke them inside of her. And when her voice changes once, and then twice, I trade my hand for my tongue and taste her climax as she bucks her hips up into my mouth, gifting me with the purest trust I could ever want.