“I love you, too, Ava.” Grant and I seal our love together with a kiss under the magical night sky in all of its frozen splendor.
“What’s the surprise?” I ask as Grant drives us past Hollow Brook and my stomach expels with a thousand sexed-up butterflies. Technically, I know what the surprise is. Once we got home from the cemetery, Grant asked if I could pack an overnight bag for an impromptu trip. I only know three things about this last minute getaway: it involves an overnight stay with the boy I love, it most definitely involves the permanent removal of my chastity belt, and last and perhaps the sweetest of them all, I get to wake up in the arms of this boy who transformed my world into a thing of beauty.
“It’s a surprise.” He shrugs as if there were no other explanation. Soon enough, road signs for Lake Avalanche dot the vicinity, and I practically shriek with excitement. We drive another excruciating hour until we finally come upon a gorgeous property that sits on the lake, and it’s the most beautiful log cabin I have ever seen.
“Well done, Jones.” I beam as he leads us up the steep stairwell. A tiny homey sign readsThe Happy Squirrel Retreat. It’s so cute and comical it takes everything in me not to snap a picture of it and send it to Lucky and Harper. With my luck, and nervous fingers, I’d probably send it to Owen instead. Never mind that. I’ll snap one on the way out for posterity. Grant fumbles with the key and blocks the entrance before I can barrel in past him.
“This is Lawson’s mom’s place.” He leans in and pecks a quick kiss to my lips. “It’s ours for the next few days.” He gives that crooked grin I can’t resist. “I swear to you, there is nothing we have to do here outside of gorging on PB and J sandwiches and playing board games.” His thumb brushes against my cheek. “I just want to spend some time alone with you.”
“Food and board games? Those just happen to be two things I can do without for the next few days.”
Grant belts out a laugh as he picks me up. “Come here.” His lips find mine as he carries me over the threshold. It’s beautiful inside, glamorous in every way with its white shag rug in the living room, its expansive vaulted ceilings, the fireplace that stretches to the sky. An entire wall of windows allows for a lakefront view, and the water, the shadowed pines—it’s breathtaking beyond measure. It’s also just as cold in here as it is outside, and I can’t stop my teeth from chattering.
Grant starts a fire, and I pull a blanket from off the sofa and lay it down in front of the roaring flames.
“I’ve got the heat on, too,” he assures, getting down on his knees with me. “But it’ll take some time to warm this place up.”
“Then we should probably make our own heat. Come here, you.” I pull him toward me and lift off his sweatshirt. That dirty frat boy grin of his blooms a mile wide. My stomach bottoms out in a roller coaster of a free fall—something that I used to think was so cliché, and here it’s real, and feels damn good, too.
Then I see it and a breath hitches in my throat, but I can’t seem to give it. It’s impossible to breathe, to move.
“It’s okay.” Grant takes my fingers and guides them to his heated flesh. Printed out in a beautiful script font is Stephanie’s name written across his chest. “Jet did it for me last summer.”
“It’s very nice.” I bump my fingertips over the letters, trying to control my breathing. I feel sidelined, and I don’t know why. “This is so very special.” I shake my head. “You are the best brother. You know that?”
“I haven’t heard that in a long time, but thank you.”
“It’s true.” I edge in closer to him until my hands relax over his shoulders. “I can testify to that myself.”
He winces. “Maybe no little sister references tonight.”
“Oh, but it can be so fun,” I tease before grimacing. “But I agree. Instead, maybe we can focus on ways to keep warm.” A thought comes to me. “You wouldn’t happen to have protection, would you?” I’m pretty sure Aubree’s prenatal enthusiasm would quickly wane if I were actually with child. Not to mention Owen might take the opportunity to rearrange Grant’s beautiful face and bone structure. Honestly, at this point, he might just be looking for excuses. He knows that Grant and I are serious, that we’re in love. I’ll never be able to look my brother in the eye after tonight.
Grant pulls one out of his wallet and holds it up to the light. “And I may have brought reinforcements just in case a few more were needed.”
“Forward thinking—I like that about you.”
His lids hood over as the moment grows serious. “I like everything about you, Ava.” Grant pulls my sweater off and pulls me close until his skin sears over mine. “I love you.” He lands a gentle kiss over my lips and lingers, leaving me aching for his hands to touch me. There’s something about the cool air hitting my flesh, the titillating factor of what tonight might hold, what it will hold, that lights up my senses.
“Oh, wow,” I groan as his heated skin brushes over mine. “This feels incredible.”
“You’re easy to please.” He pumps a dry smile that quickly fades to nothing. “I’m sorry.” He blinks back. “I would never make fun of you. I would never hurt you in any way.” Grant holds up his hands as if surrendering to the fact. I can tell he’s ready to walk on eggshells with the virgin in the room.
I bite down on my lip, laughter already bubbling in my throat. “Just this once, I give you permission to hurt me a little.” I pull Grant down on top of me and feel the heft of his body over mine as we share a tender kiss. His warm tongue dances over mine, and I’m sunk. My entire body feels faint with this beautiful boy on top of me—with his bare heated skin adhering to mine like a fire line. His hands rake up and down my sides as his thumbs rub soft circles over my bra. A panic level of excitement hits me, and I’m already almost at my zenith with this boy. Every breath comes to me faster, every inch of my skin enlivens with want, so thirsty to drink him down. I want this with Grant, and I never want it to end.
Grant and I may not make sense to other people, not on paper, but together we just fit. We’re simply meant to be.
Grant and I strip off our clothes as if they were about to combust. In truth, we’re about to combust, about to detonate, about to loosen our defenses and go nuclear on one another in the most beautiful way. I’ve waited for this moment all my life, thought of how it might be, where it might be. I’ve entertained cheesy locales in my mind, a public restroom, a frat boy’s bedroom, the back of some old beat-up car—but here in front of a roaring fire on a warm blanket with the boy I love—in a cabin fit for dignitaries with a lakefront view—it’s more than I could have asked for.Grantis more than I could have asked for.
Grant pulls back and glances over my very naked body for the first time, and the heat index in me rises. I can hardly stand to look at myself in the mirror as I hop in the shower without blushing, but something about the way Grant is looking at me makes me feel beautiful, wanted.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.” He buries a kiss in my ear. “I love you, Ava.” His voice is lost in jagged panting. His chest expands and retracts at record pace with his heart drumming right over mine.
Our kisses grow with ferocity as our hands freely explore one another for the very first time. Grant kneads my breasts before ravaging them with his lips. His mouth runs wild over my torso before landing between my thighs, and I gasp with surprise. His mouth works over me in that tender area, bringing me to the brink of a level of ecstasy that I didn’t think was possible. My fingers knit in his hair as his hot mouth sears its way over, into the most intimate part of me. For a second, my knees cinch and everything in me shouts to evict him before I relent and lock him in with my thighs instead. Grant rides back up, loving every inch of my body with his wet kisses. He bathes me with his mouth, and it feels like every good thought, wish, and dream rolled into one.
Grant takes my hand and leads me to the full length of him, and I close my fingers around his hardness. A hearty moan rips from me as if I’ve waited for this crescendo, and here it is, far bigger than life in my hand, long and rigid.
He pulls back, and I watch as he rolls the condom on, straddling me on either side of my hips. “You okay?” He bows down to meet me with a kiss.
