Page 13 of Sugar and the Skeptic
“I’m gonna make you come so hard, Sugar.”
Leaning in, I sweep my tongue through her folds, groaning as her flavor takes over and her arousal fills my senses. I wrap my arms around her thighs, groaning as I suck on her rock-hard clit, keeping her still as her hips fuck against my face, guttural moans, gasps and whines escaping her as I give her what she wants—what I want—a bone-melting orgasm.
“Rafe. Oh god. Wait. I have…there’s something—Oh god!There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Mmmm?” I don’t even lift my head, too intent on eating her like a meal.
“I’m… Oh fuck. I’m gonna come. I’m… I’m a…viiiiirrrrrgggginnnnnn!”
I barely understand the word as she comes undone against my face, and I lick and suck and take as much pleasure out of this moment as she’s getting for myself until she slowly comes down and I rise to my feet.
“You’re a virgin?” I ask, wiping a hand across my mouth as she grips the side of the counter and nods.
“Embarrassingly, yes. I’m twenty-seven years old, and I’ve never been with a man before.”
I quirk a brow. “Have you been with a woman?”
She laughs and shakes her head. “No. Well, unless my own hand counts.”
When she wiggles her fingers in the air, my dick jolts. “It doesn’t, but the thought of you getting yourself off is super hot.”
She blushes, and I move in close, standing in between her legs before I rest my hands on either side of her face before kissing her, softly at first, but then long, slow and deep before I force myself to pull back.
“There’s a pretty epic bathroom in this house. How about I run you a nice hot bath while I clean all this candle stuff up for you?”
“What?” She frowns for a split second but then just as quickly brightens. “Oh. Sure. Yeah, of course. That’d be great.”
“OK,” I say, dropping a light kiss on her nose before heading off toward the bathroom to do exactly that while giving my mind a moment to catch up on everything that just happened. I almost took her virginity on a kitchen counter. And not only that, I almost took her virginity without even knowing her age or anything much about her for that matter.
And as I turn the water on and wait for it to heat up, I realize that if I want to explore how true that card reading she did for me really is, I’m going to have to do some work to rectify that.
CLEMENTINE
Standing in the incredibly tidy kitchen the next morning, I survey the now-set candles that are lined up neatly on the kitchen table then look at the satin bag on the counter containing my cards. While I was in the bath last night wondering if admitting I was a virgin ruined the best moment of my life, Rafe was out here clearing away all evidence of candle making and twinflame Tarot readings. When I finished soaking, I came out and he was gone.
I try not to let things like body size, looks and materialism get in the way of how I feel about myself. But as a woman who’s been big all her life and struggled to hold ontoanythingbesides a handful of friends and my van long term, there’ll always be a part of me that doesn’t feel good enough. If I’m honest with myself, it’s a feeling I tend to run from also. I don’t want to face the reason someone walked away or didn’t show up for me, so my instant reaction to such discomfort has always been to pack up and move on. So that’s exactly what I’m doing this morning.
Even though I’ve had the use of a cabin for a couple of days, I didn’t take a lot of stuff out of my van, so it isn’t hard to collect my things and ready the van. The thing that takes the most time is finishing off the candles, because they need their wicks trimmed and their labels applied before I box them up and take them into town for Serenity. She’s going to be bummed that I’m taking off so soon. But I think she knows me well enough to understand why. I’ve never been one to put myself out there romantically, so the disappearing act Rafe pulled on me last night has every one of my anxiety triggers rapid firing inside my brain. And not one of them is saying nice things…
The job takes until lunchtime to complete, and I seal up the last box to load into the van and head outside before I do one last sweep of the cabin to get the last of my things and make sure I haven’t left anything behind.
“Time to get back on the road, girl,” I say, running my hand over the steering wheel as I insert the key and turn, the engine roaring to life. With one last look at the cabin, and a quiet good bye and thank you to Whisper Valley for the memories I made here, I put the camper into gear and release the handbrake. Only to hit the brakes and turn everything off again. “What on earth?”
Cutting the engine, I get out of my van and watch as a Hummer of all things ambles up the driveway and pulls to a stop in front of me. I’m not sure what to make of it until the back passenger door opens and a tuxedo-clad Rafe steps out, his hands held out to the side as he gives me a look of confusion.
“You’re not ready?” he says, moving toward me then frowning as he looks over my packed-up van. “Wait. Are you… leaving?” His green eyes look to mine filled with nothing but confusion. “What’s going on, Sugar?”
I shift on my feet, feeling uncomfortable because I’ve obviously missed something. But at the same time, I’m feeling a flood of relief rise up from the pits of my belly. Normally, when I make a decision to leave a place, I don’t look back. But just seeing him again has me wanting something I didn’t think I ever would want—to stay.
“I thought…” I let out a sigh and shake my head. “I don’t know what I thought. It’s just…you were gone and then I got thinking and I figured it was because I scared you off—”
“What? No!” He rushes forward and grabs both of my hands. “Didn’t you get my note?”
“Your note?”
“I tucked it in with your cards, but now I’m thinking that wasn’t the best decision. I thought you might do a reading of your own after I left and find a cute message inside. I’m guessing you didn’t and just thought I booked it after finding out you were a virgin?”
Biting my lip, I look up into his eyes and nod.
