Page 54 of Riding the Pine

He won’t look me in the eye, and his body is rigid. He’s probably mortified at coming in his pants. “Hey.” I grab his chin so he looks at me and kiss him so deeply he holds me against him again, like he’s afraid I might pull away and stop kissing him.

“It’s okay.” I brush my nose against his. “Please don’t be embarrassed. It’s actually flattering.” I peck his lips gently.

His eyes swim with emotion I can’t place. “I told you I’d go quickly the first time. I’ve been dreaming of this since I met you, Bright Eyes. If nothing else, it would usually mean I’ll be able to go longer when I actually get inside you after my trip, but.” He shrugs. “I wouldn’t bet on it. You make me want to blow my load.”

I laugh. “And they say romance is dead.”

The grin he flashes me as he tosses my naked ass onto the bed is unhinged. “I’ve had my orgasm, now it’s time for me to have my dessert.”

CHAPTER 22

Scott

She grins up at me as I cage her to the bed with my body. Her cheeks are flushed, but she doesn’t seem at all phased by the fact I just jizzed my boxer shorts. Those suckers are officially on the floor, and I don’t have any spare clothes with me, so I guess I’m going home commando.

Ha. I should probably feel some kind of shame for that, but I mostly want to swagger around the whole world and tell everyone that Athena de la Peña made me come in my briefs. I won’t, because kissing and telling is for assholes. I’m a vault, and I’m not even going to talk to her brothers about any of this until she does.

If she wants me to sneak around in the dead of night wearing a pink tutu and a unicorn horn, I’ll do it.

I’m gone for this woman.

How did I get so lucky? I tentatively trail my fingertips down the outside line of her bicep, she watches my fingers as they move. It’s as though both of us are in awe of what’s happening, like we both can’t believe we’re here, like we’re both expecting to wake up from this dream.

“Athena.” Her name is sacred, cherished, adored as it falls from my lips. I’ve wanted nothing more than to be intimate with this woman for what feels like a million years.

I kiss her collarbone, and her back arches.

I drag my tongue down the column of her throat, she moans. It’s a beautiful, needy sound that settles in my chest. I want to make her moan like that for the rest of both of our lives.

So far, I haven’t touched any naked private part of her. It’s not because it’s weird, but I guess, I don’t know… Despite the fact she’s naked and lying underneath me, she still needs to say yes to me touching those places.

I know the assumption is there, right? But I need her to be emphatically clear that it’s what she wants.

I don’t have to wait long or ask her. It seems she knows me better than I thought because she’s staring right at me when she picks my hand off her body and drops it right on top of the nipple I’ve been staring at.

Fuck.

I’m touching Athena de la Peña’s boob.

Oh. My. God.

If I could go back and tell sixteen-year-old me that I’d be touching her boob he’d laugh me out of the room.

Her nipple is hard, pressing into the palm of my hand. When I knead her breast gently, she moans again, and her nipple somehow gets harder. I trace my finger around the base of the little nub? Bud? What the fuck else can you call a nipple other than a nipple?

Everything about this woman makes me want to get Shakespearean or something, makes me want to write poetry about how the skin around her nipple is the perfect shade of gold. None of the de la Peña’s have particularly dark skin, but Athena’s is simply captivating.

I haven’t met every woman from the Dominican Republic, but I bet you could search the entire country and never find a woman with such an enthralling shade of skin.

The contrast to my Iowa-white fingers makes me smile. The cold blue, almost translucent tones of my pasty white ass next to the slight warm hue of her tawny skin fascinates me as my finger loops in circles around her nipple.

Somehow, it’s still getting harder under my finger, and a part of me wants to see just how perky I can make her nips.

“The things I’m going to do to you, Bright Eyes.” I’m not sure if it’s a threat or a promise but—shit, she might think it’s a threat.

I look up at her, and she’s grinning at me. “Well, if you could do some of them before I grow old and die, that would be fucking great.” She rolls her eyes, dropping her head back onto her pillow with a puff of air.

“I can’t help it. I want to study every square inch of your body, commit it all to memory, see what your reactions are to every little thing, learn what you like, what you don’t like, and everything in between.” I pinch the sensitive tip between my fingers and squeeze. Instead of a yelp, this hot-as-fuck sound comes from the back of her throat, so I do it again.

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