Page 88 of Fourth Wheel
Maddie
I’msooutofmy element here. And yet there’s no place else I’d rather be.
I’m sitting out on Dempsey’s balcony, listening to the frogs and crickets, while fireflies dance in the canopies of the trees. It’s unbearably humid tonight—but that’s Ohio in July. There’s a familiarity to the heat and the moisture clinging to the air. It reminds me of summer nights with Rhett, Tori, and Jake. Freeze tag and skinned knees and the ice cream truck rolling through the neighborhood.
He walks onto the balcony wearing athletic shorts and a ribbed tank—a total departure from the sharp suit he had on for most of the day. When we got back to the house, he explained that Fielding was keeping their dad busy tonight. I guess it was Fielding who encouraged him to take it easy and spend the night with me.
I’m grateful for it. My own selfish reasons aside, Dempsey looks like he could use a break. His eyes aren’t as bright as usual, and the wrinkle between his brows has barely left his face. I feel terrible about the passing of his mother, but I can’t help but hope that now that the funeral’s over and most of her affairs are in order, he can regroup and some of the burdens he carries will ease.
“Hi,” I offer when he spots me in my favorite chair. It’s identical to the other loungers out here, but this is the chair he was sitting in the first night we hooked up.
“Hi, you,” he murmurs, grabbing for my hand as he sits down beside me.
I immediately rise to my feet. Sitting side by side doesn’t feel close enough after all that time apart.
Earlier, when he found me in the parking lot and held me, something clicked back into place. The countdown is on for the rest of our time together, but if he’s all in until the end, then so am I.
I straddle his lap and join him on his chair, my body melting into his solid, muscled frame as he pulls me closer. We sit like that, neither of us speaking, both wrapped up in the other, listening to the frogs and crickets in the distance.
“What can I do for you?” I ask eventually, shifting back so I can brush his hair out of his face. God, I missed touching him.
He rests his head back on the chair and closes his eyes, humming in pleasure as I play with his hair. “Just being here is enough. Everything about the last week and a half was hard. But being away from you was the worst of it. I missed you so damn much.”
I feel his sorrow in my bones. Grief for his mother. Worry about his brother. I can’t help but feel like I’m responsible for some of his pain as well. All I can do is be with him now and do everything in my power to lessen his heartache.
“I’m here now,” I reassure him, pressing my lips to his in the gentlest kiss. “I’m here now, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
We sit together as the minutes tick by, then an idea comes to mind.
“Do you want to take a bath together?” I ask.
“Hell yeah, I do,” he replies, rising to stand with me in his arms. “Go get all that strawberry stuff you like from the guest bathroom. I’ll fill the tub.” He places me on my feet and swats at my ass as I scurry out of his room and down the hall.
By the time I make it back to his bathroom, the tub is half-filled and he’s already removed his shirt.
Goddamn. I really did miss this man.
I wrap my arms around his lean, muscled torso, then squeeze him so tight he lets out an involuntaryumph.
“Arms up,” he murmurs when we finally break apart, lifting my shirt for me and discarding it with his on the floor. He bites his bottom lip as he assesses me, and I preen under his gaze.
I shimmy out of my shorts, then unhook my bra and let it fall off my shoulders. I give him a cheeky grin before turning around and dumping strawberry shower gel into the tub.
He swats at my backside, then sidles up behind me, completely naked now, his erection lined up perfectly with my ass. “You better get in there before I change my mind and carry you over to the bed instead,” he murmurs against my neck.
I peel down my panties, taking longer than necessary to step out of them, then climb into the tub and gingerly scoot toward the front. The thing is massive—it’s honestly the size of a hot tub, so we’ll have no problem fitting together. I admire the view while he climbs in and hisses slightly as he gets used to the hot water.
Once he’s seated, I move back, lining up my legs with his and draping my body over him.
“Right there, baby girl,” he encourages as I melt into his arms. He encircles my waist and positions me so I’m sitting on his lap, my back flush against his chest with his very erect cock lined up along my center.
It would be all too easy to slip him inside me—and goodness gracious if I don’t want tofeel himinside me again, preferably as soon as possible—but that’s not what this is about.
Right now, I just want to be here with him. To let him feel me. To reacquaint our bodies and our hearts after that treacherous time apart.
He laces our fingers together, then glides our joined hands up and down my body. Everywhere he grazes feels good and solid and warm—in seconds, I’m on fire for his touch.
“You’re everything I never knew I wanted,” he whispers, inspiring goosebumps to erupt along my neck and down my spine. He brings our hands to rest on the inside of my thighs.
