Page 52 of Riding the Pine

I pull my shoulders back and hold my chin up. I won’t shy away from this just because it’s uncomfortable for me to be vulnerable. “Their cocks weren’t your cock.”

He groans as though he loves hearing me say the word cock, too. “We’ve wasted so much time, Athena.” He closes the distance toward me and skims his finger along my jawline. I can’t believe how a simple touch lights up my whole body.

It’s like there’s magic in his fingertips, and it’s felt everywhere. My eyes search his as he fists my hair and tugs my head back. His mouth closes over mine, and his tongue explores my mouth.

This kiss isn’t like our last one, it’s not lazy and tired and patient. It’s demanding, desperate, and dangerous. His hand grips my waist and it’s firm, commanding, like he’s not wasting a single second more, like he already owns me. Because he does. In truth, Scott Raine has always owned me, we’ve simply been living in denial.

When his hand slides up toward my boob, an instinctive squeak slips out, and he stops dead. “You want me to stop?”

“Jesus Christ, Scott, you’re going to kill me.” I drop my forehead against his chin. “No. I don’t want you to stop. I think I’m just going to have moments of ‘holy shit, my brother’s best friend is groping my boob,’ or… whatever else you’re going to do with me.” I look up at him, expecting to see irritation in his eyes, but all there is, is amusement.

“It’s a bit weird, right?”

I shake my head. “Don’t get the wrong impression. I want this. Dios mío do I want this. It’s just, I…” I huff out a breath like it might clear the words out. “I’ve wanted this for so long, now that it’s happening, it’s all a bit surreal.”

Holding my gaze, he covers my boob with his giant man hand and squeezes. “Honk, honk.”

I want to laugh out loud, but it draws a guttural sound from the back of my throat that I’ve never heard come out of myself before.

“Are you going to joke your way through our sex life?”

He nods, solemnly. “If that’s a problem we should stop this train right now.” He honks the other boob to make it even. “I’ve always imagined we’d have fun together. If you can’t have fun with the person you love, if you can’t laugh in the bedroom when you’re at your most vulnerable with each other, then is it even love?”

I’d respond, but his thumb is rolling circles over my nipple through my bra, and it’s as though he’s shut off all power to intelligent conversation. My breath catches as I lean into his hand. Fuck.

“Scott.” It’s a single word, and I’m not sure why I even say his name but I reach a hand out to steady myself against his chest while he shushes against my ear.

“It’s okay, pretty girl, I’ve got you.” He dots kisses down the side of my neck, his lips searing my skin with the lightest of touches. “I know, it’s overwhelming, but we’ll get through it together, okay?”

My eyes well up with a surprising rush of emotion, and I blink them back.

“Don’t fight it, Athena.” He nips at the skin at the bottom of my neck sending wave after wave of shivers through my body. “Fuck. I love how responsive you are.” He places gentle kisses on top of the sensitive skin he’s just nibbled at. “There’s every chance I’m going to come in my pants and cry my eyes out during our first time. We just have to go with it and feel what we need to feel, okay?”

As he speaks, he places his hand under my shirt on my bare waist. A slow hiss of breath escapes me as he skims my ribcage and cups my bra-clad breast. Each movement is slow, deliberate, and I can tell from the concentration on his face that he’s logging my every single reaction.

Scott Raine’s hand is on my naked flesh. And I want more.

As though he can’t stay standing anymore, he crouches onto his haunches, picks up the bottom of my shirt and lifts it so he can see my bare stomach. The thought crosses my mind to suck it in, but if he doesn’t like me for who and how I am at this point, I’m shit out of luck.

He kisses my stomach, dragging his lips across my skin making me tip my head back on a sigh. Trailing his tongue up my body, he makes me moan. He’s standing as he travels the length of my torso, and when he gets to the band of my bra, he stands up and tugs my shirt over my head.

Standing back, he takes me in. I don’t feel an urge to cover myself. I’m generally confident in my own skin. Even if I wasn’t, the look in Scott’s eyes right now would make me stand here naked for hours if I could.

Not gonna suggest that because he might agree, and I’ll never get to come.

He eyes my red, lacy bra like it’s a wonder of the universe. “Fucking hell, Athena. I’m already close.”

I giggle, but nod because I know exactly what he means. Realistically, it’s only been two years since we met, but it’s as though every single urge and desire from those two years are bubbling into one overflowing pot on the stove.

My body is supercharged, a chain reaction has already started deep within my body, and it won’t take long for him to get me to where I need to be.

He shucks my pants off, painfully slowly, tracing the lines of my ass cheeks, thighs, hell, even brushing over my knees, letting me balance with a hand on his shoulder while he starts taking them off.

What the hell is wrong with me? Who finds knees sexy? I don’t know if it’s even a thing, but Scott has somehow managed to make my knees—the front, not even the back—sensual. His soft lips sweep over the delicate skin on my legs, leaving goosebumps in his wake as he takes slow, intentional care while undressing me.

It’s not frantic or rushed. It’s measured, like he’s spent years pining for this moment but never believing it would happen, like he’s afraid once it does, it might never happen again.

He kisses all the way to the tips of my big toes as he slides my clothing off my feet and casts them onto the floor, then, he kisses all the way back up, stopping so painfully close to my crotch I might die.

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