“No.But you can still feel wobbly until you get your bike legs under you.”With a gust of wind, a lock of hair blew across her face, and he reached over to tuck it back beneath her hat.“We could make a date for next weekend.”He used the word intentionally.He’d used it last night, wanting her to know this wasn’t an adventure or an experience, but an actual date.And he wanted more.
“Hiking is more my speed.”She grinned at him, teasing him.“I bet I can climb the Pinnacles as easily as you can.”
Pinnacles National Monument stretched to the south between Hollister and Soledad.And whether you entered from the Soledad side or the Hollister side, the climbs to the peak were steep and strenuous.“It’s a bet.But we have to go early in the morning to beat the heat.It can sizzle out there.We should start from Soledad.It’s more open on that side, and it’s best to reach the top before the sun really beats down.And returning from the Hollister side, you’ve got more shade on the trail.Plus, there’s a cave to climb through.”He gave her a shit-eating grin.“Too bad it’s not bigger, or I could do very naughty things to you in there.”
She slapped playfully at him.“Is sex all you think about?”
He leaned in to kiss her quickly before she could push him away.“Yes.When I’m around you.And don’t tell me it isn’t what you think about too.After all, you’re my phone fuck buddy.”And she’d become so much more.
She just smiled, a knowing smirk.
Reaching the grotto he’d told her about, he led her down a steep path through dense foliage, holding out his hand when he thought she might need help.But Summer never needed help.She was as sure-footed as a mountain goat, and he believed her claims that she could outwalk him in Pinnacles.
The beach, however, was dotted with families sitting on blankets, little kids dashing into the waves.
Knox reeled her in for a swift kiss.“And the dream died,” he murmured against her lips.
She smiled.“Too many people here for you to get naughty with me in the grotto?”
He pulled her to the mouth of the cavern, which was dripping with moss and condensation, ferns sprouting all around.“If it was just adults, I’d do it.But we shouldn’t traumatize little kids.”
He led her to a log in the sand right outside the opening and shrugged off his pack.“But we can at least eat the feast I prepared for you.”
He was almost glad he couldn’t fuck her.If they had, it would have taken this beautiful day from date status to an adventure, or even an experience.
Fishing in the pack, he pulled out a sandwich sealed in a plastic bag.
She gasped, a flirty smile on her lips that made him want to kiss her again.“Don’t tell me you actually prepared sandwiches,” she said with a laugh.
“Drinks.”Twisting off the cap on a water bottle, he gave it to her.“Sandwich.”He handed her the baggie.“Dessert.”He placed two chocolate-covered nut bars on the log.
She guzzled thirstily, her throat working, and he mused it was the same way her throat would move when she swallowed his come.
She would swallow all of him eventually.But not now and not here.
Resting the bottle on her knee, she tipped her head back.“Oh my God, that was so good.I didn’t realize how thirsty I was.”
She couldn’t know how good it would be when she finally took him in her mouth and drank all of him.He ached for it.
Digging into her baggie, she pulled out the sandwich.“Tuna fish.”She beamed at him.
“With hard-boiled egg and relish,” he elaborated.“That’s how my mom always made them.”
She ate with gusto.Just the way she came, with pleasure in every moment.
Maybe the time wasn’t right, but he didn’t care, and he said, “I had my annual physical and I’ve got a completely clean bill of sexual health, all my tests negative.”He was a careful man, always using protection, but he had himself regularly checked too.But with her, he craved skin to skin contact.
She stared at him for a moment.“That’s nice.”Then, half a beat later, she added, “My recent doctor visit gave me a clean bill of health too.I always get tested just in case.But I’m careful.”
“So we’re both clean and healthy.I presume you use some sort of birth control.”
She actually blushed, but answered boldly.“I do.”
He smiled.“Then let’s forget about using condoms.Because I want to feel your silky flesh surrounding me with nothing between us.”
As her cheeks heated with either embarrassment or pleasure, she said, “You do have a way with words.”
He looked at her for a long moment, then murmured, “Are you okay with that?”
