Page 85 of Wood Riddance
After dinner and several rounds of hugs and congratulations, I headed home, still wrestling with my feelings. For so many years, I’d been searching for love. For companionship and friendship and respect and passion. And there was a small voice in my head that kept telling me I’d found it. I’d found him.
Finn was at my house when I arrived, already making use of the key I’d given him. He was in the backyard with He-Man, who was barking at him like he was an intruder.
He was bent over a five-gallon bucket in the grass. His hair was down and covering his face. I itched to touch him to ground myself.
When my shoes hit the deck, he stood up straight and hit me with a giant grin. “God, you’re gorgeous. Get over here.”
Obediently, I sashayed my way to him, and when I was within arm’s reach, he pulled me in for a long, languid kiss.
“Ready for your surprise?” He waved to the bucket.
“What are those?” I asked, peering over the lip of it.
“Those, my sexy, beautiful woman, are eco-friendly water balloons. They have magnets and can be refilled.”
I laughed, my heart floating in my chest. “Water balloons, seriously?”
“It’s August in Maine, so it’s ninety degrees with one hundred and ten percent humidity. Trust me, water balloons are necessary. Plus.” He smacked my ass. “I think you could use the stress relief.”
I bit my lip and shivered at the pleasure and pain that rippled through me at the contact.
There had to be at least one hundred water-filled orbs in there in a rainbow of colors. After a moment of contemplation, I had to admit he wasn’t wrong. Smacking him square in the chest with a water balloon would probably be really freaking fun.
“Okay. I’m in.”
“Good girl. Now go inside and put on a skimpy bikini. ’Cause I’m gonna get you all wet and dirty, and then I’m gonna lay you out in the wildflowers and eat your pussy.”
My thighs clenched in response to his dirty words. I secretly liked it when he bossed me around, though I’d never tell him that. At this point, I should be used to the dirty talk and the bossy attitude and the demands, but every single time, it got me so worked up. Not for the first time, I wondered how I’d resisted him for as long as I did.
I was working on a sassy comeback when he peeled off his T-shirt and tossed it onto the back of a lounge chair.Fuck me.No matter how many times I saw Finn shirtless, the novelty didn’t wear off. His chest activated some kind of evolutionary instinct in me, and the moment his skin was exposed, I lost the ability for rational thought. Instead, my brain defaulted to commands that involved clubbing him over the head and dragging him back to my cave so I could make giant Viking babies with him.
I’d like to think I was a bit more evolved than my cavewoman ancestors, but the broad shoulders, thick muscles, and the dusting of chest hair made me go full Neanderthal every single time.
He bit his lip and gave me a cocky smile as he tied his hair back. “Oh, She-Ra. I love the feel of your eyes on me. But I can’t wait another minute to get you all wet.”
He shooed me away, and I practically ran to my bedroom to change.
I emerged a few minutes later and found him filling a second bucket. He carefully opened each balloon and filled it to capacity before closing it again. Thankfully, my yard was fenced and flanked by mature trees, so it was unlikely that we’d be seen by any of the neighbors.
He nodded at the bucket he’d filled first, signaling that it was mine, so I grabbed it and stashed it behind a tree. Then I loaded my arms with half a dozen balloons, ready for battle.
Any thoughts I had about him taking it easy on me vanished as soon as the first water balloon hit me in the ass. My spine snapped straight as the cold water splattered, and I whipped around, only to catch a glimpse of him diving behind an azalea bush.
“This means war!” I shouted.
On the deck, He-Man barked wildly in agreement and ran in circles. I got Finn a few times before he darted across the open lawn. I took that as my opportunity and chased him down. He had me in both speed and strength, but this was my territory, and I’d use it to my advantage.
“Do your worst, She-Ra,” he shouted, lobbing another balloon with ridiculous accuracy. “Because when we’re done, you’re all mine.”
We ran and dove and shouted as we threw balloons and came up with increasingly dramatic ways to fall when we got hit. At one point, I slipped on wet grass and landed flat on my back. I lay there and laughed for a full minute. Then all my anxiety faded away as I cornered him behind the hostas, two balloons in each hand.
“Surrender,” I said, arms in the air. This was the most fun I’d had in years.
He looked at me, his face completely serious, and said, “I already have.”
Chapter27
Finn
