Page 43 of Fern's Date with Destiny
She loved that.Loved undoing the calm he tried so hard to hold onto.
When she took him deeper, his thighs tensed under her palm.His hand tangled in her hair, not forcing, just holding on as if he’d fly apart without the anchor.She worked him slow, savouring the taste, the heat, the helpless sounds he couldn’t bite back.
He tried to warn her, she knew he did.His hand flexed against her cheek, his hips twitching.But before he could finish the words, he made a broken noise and pulled her up.His mouth crashed into hers, and she tasted salt and heat and him.
“Not like that,” he growled against her lips.“I need to be inside you.”
Her whole body lit up in response.“Then do it.”
He spun her, pressing her forearms to the wall, angling her hips out and up.He pushed her dress higher, and she felt the heat of him as he knocked her feet apart.
“Tell me if it’s too much,” he rasped.
“Try me.”She twisted her head just enough to watch as he covered himself with a condom.Then their eyes met, and whatever restraint he’d been clinging to shattered.
When he pressed into her, she bit her lip to keep from crying out.He filled her in a slow, unhurried yet unstoppable thrust, and her whole body went tight.He stayed still, forehead resting between her shoulder blades, breath ragged.
“Christ,” he whispered.“You feel…God.”
“Move,” she demanded, every nerve ending on fire.“Please.”
He obeyed, and it wasn’t sweet anymore.It was hard and hungry and exactly what she’d needed.He pushed her hard, and she surged upward until her cheek pressed to the cool wall as he drove into her.Her whole body went liquid under the force of it.His hands locked on her hips, body curled over her, and something about the way he held her so securely made her heart feel just as exposed as her body.
“Cody—” She tried to say something else, but all that came out was a keening gasp as her climax tore through her.
He groaned her name into her hair, hips stuttering as he followed her over the edge.
For a long moment, they just stayed there.Her pinned to the wall, him pressed against her back, their breathing ragged and tangled together.
Then her phone buzzed from her discarded jacket on the floor.A second later, Cody’s pocket chimed too.
He dropped a kiss to her neck, voice rough with spent desire.“That’s definitely Chance.Bet you ten bucks he’s warning us the cake is about to be cut.”
Fern let out a strangled laugh.“God, our family is going to kill us.”
“Not if we sneak back quick as if nothing happened.”He eased out of her, hands gentle as he tugged her dress back into place.“We can do innocent.”
She turned, feeling deliciously wrecked, and kissed him softly.“We’re terrible at innocent.”
He smirked.“Worth it.”
They scrambled to make themselves look presentable.Her hair was a mass of hopeless tangles, but she did her best to tease it into submission.Cody dealt with the condom then tucked himself away, glancing around and looking for things to straighten up as he zipped his jeans.
“Okay,” she panted, checking her reflection in the little mirror by the door.“We have about thirty seconds to look like we haven’t been?—”
He kissed her again, slow and sweet, and she melted despite herself.
When they stepped back into the yard at her parents, Rose arched an eyebrow that saidI know exactly what you two were doing.
Fern pasted on her sweetest smile.
A chorus of voices started singing “Happy Birthday,” and she and Cody slipped in beside Tansy, who, thankfully, was very distracted by the cake.
More and more people knew about them, but somehow having Tansy in the dark was extra delightful.
Fern got through the rest of the celebration without giving herself away, but every time Cody’s hand brushed hers, she felt it again.A promise humming between them.
Two weeks later on May first, bright and early the morning of her twenty-fourth birthday, she opened the door to find him standing there with a bouquet of roses and that crooked smile that made her knees go loose.
