Page 59 of Artfully Wild
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
JACOB
Iwake up with a warm body curled around mine like a koala in winter. Shortly after we both got settled into our rooms, we decided when it was late enough that I could chance sneaking into Skylar’s room without Camp getting wind of it. I have a feeling if he doesn’t already know, when he finds out, he’s going to be more angry than the time I put packing tape in front of his office door—his glasses got caught and when they became unstuck, they fell and the lenses shattered against the hardwood floor. The look on his face when he ran into the tape was worth it to my young ten-year-old self even with all the chores Mom made me do to pay for a new pair.
A muffled groan sounds against my bare back. “Not an early bird today, little sparrow?” I tease. I get a grunt in response as she tries to nestle further into me. “We can’t stay in bed all day, you know.”
“I don’t know,” she argues. “I think we could stay here all day. We have room service and everything. It’s perfect.”
“As much as I’d love to spend the day between your legs, we have a full day ahead of us.”
“Mmmm,” she groans, rolling over on her back. Themovement causes the sheet to fall further down her torso revealing her breasts. The exposure to the air causes them to perk up and it’s almost like they are staring me down, daring me to break and touch them. They win, because I can’t resist her.
I move my body on top of hers, feeling her hard nipples against my chest. Kissing her lips once, twice until she responds with her tongue pressing to get past my lips. What was a playful beginning to the day turns into a slow, sensual climb. “You know, a morning in bed wouldn’t be so bad,” I admit.
“It’s still early enough that we can take our time too,” she adds, pulling my body closer to hers so my length is nestled against her center. Just to prove a point, she wraps her legs around my torso, locking her ankles behind me, squeezing her thighs enough to let me know I’m not going anywhere even if I tried. Not that I want to go anywhere. I’d happily stay here for the rest of my life, living off of her kisses and her orgasms.
Her lips press against my neck, softly nipping at the skin followed by the caress of her tongue to quickly soothe the pain away. She pushes at my shoulders and I take her lead, her body covering mine, welcoming the weight on top of me. Working her way down my chest, I brace myself on the palm of my hands to grant her easier access. When she lands right above my nipple she teases by sucking on the skin above it. I can’t help but picture a small bruise there later and the idea of being marked by Sky, even just temporarily, makes my cock twitch against my pants, aching for some relief.
I get some temporarily as she finally moves her mouth to the hard peak on my chest, swirling her tongue around it in between soft nips and hard sucks. This is one thing I don’t think enough men think about when it comes to nipple foreplay. It’s often forgotten that men love it too. Men meaning me. And damn is Skylar good at foreplay.
She starts to trail kisses down my torso, but I tug her by the bicep up to me, her body covering mine from head to toe. I kissher softly, lightly trailing my fingertips down her arm. “I am so glad I decided to sneak in here last night,” I say, peppering light kisses along her jaw, feeling her muscles tighten with her smile.
“What would you have done if he caught you and tried to stop you?” Her body vibrates with laughter and she presses against me as each sound leaves her lips.
Stroking her hair just above her right ear, I place my knuckle under her chin, pulling her closer to me. “You really think there is anything that can ever keep me from you, Skylar Waters?” I pause, moving closer until my lips are a whisper on hers. “Because if you do, then you are very, very wrong, sweetheart.”
I press my lips to hers and she immediately parts her lips, inviting me in. I follow her, our breaths tangling together and our hands roaming bodies we know so well and somehow can’t wait to discover all over again. Maps we have read before, found the red X, but there’s treasure left behind, waiting to be discovered. I flip her over on her back more than ready to make another discovery when a loud knock comes at the door.
“Room service!”
Sky groans, interrupted by my head colliding with her chest as I lay it down in defeat. Gentle fingers thread through my hair. “Did you order room service and forget?”
“Mmm, no. I didn’t.” My voice is muffled against her skin and I take a moment to breathe her in before I press a kiss against her and get up to answer the door. Hope of a morning in bed crushed by a mysterious room service breakfast.
I open the door to a cart full of multiple covered dishes of what I assume is high quality breakfast foods and juices. There’s also a coffee carafe and small jars of different flavored syrups. My stomach growls and I’m suddenly grateful someone thought to send us a buffet.
“Camp must have sent it,” Sky says from behind me, pushing her arms through one of the robes from the closet. “Good thing too, because we have to get to the ski lift soon anyway.”
I hold back a groan and wish I would have done something to make her forget we are going skiing today.
After we ate what seemed to be the whole breakfast menu, we finally left and made it to the slopes just in time. Even though I think both of us would have been perfectly content watching movies inside all day in the comfort of that bed—although most of the movies would go completely unwatched.
“Okay, Jacob,” Skylar says abruptly. “Tell me something that you have never told me before. Something you have never told anyone.”
I fix my eyes on her and try to think about anything other than the fact that we are currently making our way up a fucking mountain that is thousands of feet above ground level and that my heart is attempting to carve its way out of my chest. It’s slow going, but I’m convinced the rock hammer it’s using is faster than the one Andy Dufresne used to dig that tunnel inShawshank Redemption.
The ski lift jerks and suddenly I am full of regrets and all I wish for now is to go back to the room and hide underneath the covers for the rest of the day. On the ground. Safe. And not up what feels like a thousand feet in the air, wondering exactly how fast we are going to be going once we actually ski down the mountain. I’ve been here before and sure I’ve skied before, but usually we stuck to the smaller hills. Also known as the safer hills. The bunny slopes. Ugh, I miss the bunny slopes, eventhough as a kid, those felt exactly as this one does now. It jerks again and I turn my head to the left towards Sky and focus on her. I focus on her pink lips, still slightly swollen from kissing this morning. I focus on the way she bites her bottom lip when the wind picks up and blows the small strands of hair sticking out by her ears and a few across her forehead. The way she can sense my anxiety and places a gloved hand on my thigh, calming me. Well, almost. I just noticed exactly how high we were because I took my eyes off her for a second and looked down after the wind rocked the lift. And now I’m panicking again. But I don’t want her to know I’m panicking. Does she know? She definitely might, considering she’s now gently squeezing my leg and stroking her thumb back and forth against my thigh.
“You okay?” she asks and it’s strange, because all the times we have come here with her family before, no one has noticed my reaction to being up so high. But, right now, Skylar is reading me like the book her sister left her. And I have annotations scribbled on my skin, admitting everything I’ve ever felt. Including this fear.
I keep my eyes on her, ignoring the inevitable reaction I am about to get from this admission, and take comfort in the fact that we are almost at the top. The image of me skiing down the mountain leaving a completely flabbergasted Sky, jaw hanging open and everything, comes to mind. I push it aside though, because I wouldn’t do that to her. She has a right to know what I’ve been hiding all these years.
I allow myself one more deep breath, grateful that all the ski gear is hiding the sweat that is surely soaking through my shirt right about now.
“I’m terrified of heights,” I blurt and it’s followed by a silence so piercing, I am convinced she either didn’t hear me or she did and has no idea what to say to it.
“You’re what?” she asks, calmer than I ever would have expected her to be. I try to read her features, but the gear I wasjust grateful for a second ago doesn’t allow me to see most of her face. It’s covered by goggles and a hood, but her mouth is slightly agape, like she wasn’t quite sure what I said.
