“More than ready,” I admitted, grinning. His arms gripped the sides of the ladder, caging mein.
He kissed me, his lips fitting against mine as if he’d done this on a daily basis, even though it’d be months since we last touched eachother.
I wrapped my hands around the back of his neck, kissing him back with greed that bubbled over from the cracks in myheart.
A moment later, I pulled away, drawing in a much needed breath. He let me go, moving his lips to pepper kisses along the side of myjaw.
“I’m cold,” I said, my teeth chattering less from the temperature, and more from anticipation. I needed him, I craved him. I could think of nothing else but him in that moment. Not tomorrow, not nextmonth.
It was a poignant, all-consuming, and very confusingfeeling.
Shivering and wet, we raced across the sandy beach to his truck. I threw open the passenger door and jumped in, rubbing my hands over my arms to try and warm up. He turned on the heat and then reached into the back seat to grab two towels. I took the one he offered me and dried off, using it to clean the sand off my feet last. I sat up, tucking my wet hair behind my ear, stillshivering.
“Come here,” he said, his gruff voice breaking the silence that filled the cab. I moved closer to him, my heart pounding ceaselessly in my chest as he lifted me almost effortlessly onto his lap. His legs were so long that his seat had to be pushed back all the way, which meant I had no trouble fitting in the spot between him and the steeringwheel.
I rolled my hips, my core brushing against the length of his hardness. Travis let out a deep groan. He caught my bottom lip with his teeth and tugged gently as his hands gripped my hips, bringing me against him again. His skin was hot, despite how cold the water had been just momentsbefore.
He kept kissing me while he reached forward and popped open the glove box, searching through it blindly. He found what he was looking for and drew back, flashing the square foil packet at me with a wicked grin. “Always come prepared,” he remarked, rolling the condom over his thick, hard length. My heart clenched in momentary crushing disappointment, and before I could mull over the reasonwhyI felt that way, his hands went to my hips again and he held me while he slowly easedinside.
I forgot who we were. I forgot where we were. I forgot every single thing except how he felt inside ofme.
He pumped into me, hard and sure. I met him thrust for thrust, eager to take every last drip of pleasure he gave me. My orgasm hit hard, and I bit a little too hard on his bottom lip. He didn’t seem to care, he continued to drive into me a few more times before he found hisrelease.
“Jesus, Becs,” he panted afterward, his eyes fixed on mine. The grin on his face eased the panic I felt in the moments after our joining, when the gentle touches and the long gazes would spark thoughts better left unspoken. “I’ve missed being inyou.”
“That sounds dangerously like something a boyfriend would say,” I warned him, climbing off his lap. I twisted around, trying to reach my clothes in the back seat. I’d said it to remind him of my rules, but it also served as a reminder tomyself.
“Or it sounds dangerously like something a dude would say right after sex,” Travis shot back, slapping myass.
I turned my head to look at him, letting out an aggravated huff as my fist closed around my pile of clothes. Each beat of my heart hurt, and I couldn’t look at him while I dressed. Once finished, I turned to face him. He was standing outside, slipping back into his jeans. “We’re going to have to stop this, you know,” I finallysaid.
Travis paused for a second. He didn’t meet my gaze as he straightened and buttoned his jeans. “Stop what?” he asked. He sounded casual, but the slight tick in his jaw suggested my words had upsethim.
“Sleeping together,” Iclarified.
“Why do we have to do that?” he asked, grinning at me as he leaned into the cab, his chest still gloriously bare. He reached for his t-shirt, pulling it on and obscuring my view of his six-pack.
“Because Brock’s getting married next month, and when you come back we’ll have to be around each otherandeveryone else. I don’t want anybody suspecting anything. We had our fun, but I think it’s time this arrangement ended.” Each word burned like acid on the way out, but it was necessary. In that moment, I knew I’d gotten more invested than I ever intended ongetting.
“This arrangement,” Travis repeated, still smiling…only without the amusement. He nodded his head once, pursing his lips as he absorbed what I wassaying.
“Yes.” I don’t know why, but it felt an awful lot like I was hurting him, and I didn’t like how knotted my stomach was overit.
“So you’re saying that you no longer want to have incredible sex with me, because your brother’s getting married and you don’t want anybody to find out that we’re having incredible sex?” he paraphrased, his brow raising in question. I nodded. “Would it really be all that bad if they foundout?”
His question threw me completely off guard. My heart stuttered in my chest and I felt a rush of adrenaline, a desire to take flight from this situation that I couldn’t seem to stay in control ofanymore.
“Yes!” I finally replied after overcoming my shock. I looked at him like he’d lost his ever loving marbles. “You really don’t think Brock would be pissed if he found out what we’ve been doing behind his back for the last fouryears?”
It wasn’t like our sleeping together had been a one-time thing, like I’d planned for in the beginning. That could have been easily forgiven, but we had met up many times. Every summer, and whenever else he came home and sought meout.
I worried about what that betrayal would do to Brock and Travis’s friendship. I couldn’t stand the idea of causing another rift betweenthem.
Travis hesitated. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, searching for something to say. He looked like he wanted to argue with me, but he knew that I was probably right aboutBrock.
“If that’s what you want,” he finally said. He climbed in, closed the door, and started the engine. He said nothing as he backed away from the beach and pulled out onto the privateroad.
We didn’t talk for the entire drive back to town. He pulled into my driveway, finally lifting his chin to look at me. “See you around, Becs,” he said, his eyes focusing straight ahead again. Dismissingme.
