15. Nick

CHAPTER 15

NICK

It happened. And it will happen again. And from now on, it will happen often and repeatedly. I’ve had a taste of you, Clara, and I’ll never forget it. We can’t go back to just being friends now that we’ve kissed. - Nick

Once we got inside, the kiss went wild. Blood pounded in my brain and sent my senses reeling before shooting straight to my cock. I pressed her against the door after I kicked it shut, the warm heat between her legs cradling me as I grew impossibly, painfully hard.

“I feel that. Damn, how I missed you,” she moaned into my ear. “Take me to bed.”

I set her down and offered my hand.

She shook her head and whipped off her tank top, tossing it in my face with a grin before turning to dart toward my staircase, kicking her black, high-heeled cowgirl boots off on the way.

“Game on.” Chuckling, I ran after her, kicking off my own shoes and shucking my shirt to toss it over my head as I met her at the base of the stairs. Memories of how we used to be together burst in my mind like fireworks.

Once we’d given up our virginity to each other, we couldn’t get enough. All we did was fuck and make plans to sneak off together so we could fuck some more. We were obsessed with each other’s bodies and the various ways we could make each other feel good.

We’d lie beneath the stars, in the back of my truck or at the back of her mother’s farm on a blanket in one of the lavender fields, making love and making plans. We talked about how lucky we were to have each other, and everything we’d do when we had the freedom to make our own choices.

It seemed she was still the wild, uninhibited girl I used to know and love; it was just hidden beneath years of hurt and disappointment—same as me.

“Baby, wait for me,” I called out. “Slow down, we have all night . . .”

“Forget slow, I made up my mind. I want you.” She’d already tossed her bra down the stairs by the time I caught up to her.

I wasn’t going to debate her further. “Okay, then these jeans need to be off.” I hooked my fingers into her belt loops and hauled her close until those perfect, rosy-tipped tits of hers flattened against my chest. I felt her nipples pebble against me, and I groaned against her mouth before placing a kiss there.

“You first.” With a flick of her fingers, she undid my jeans and reached inside to free my cock, rubbing her thumb across the tip and making me groan. “Do you taste as good as I remember?”

“God, Clara, I wanted to⁠—”

“You’ll get what you want, Nick. Don’t you worry about that.” Her knees hit the floor in front of me and a huge smile unfurled across her face right before she darted her tongue out to lick the tip of my cock.

“My god, baby. You’ll make me finish before we even get started. I’m halfway there already.” Before she could get a chance to take me fully into her mouth, I lifted her up with my hands beneath her arms. “You’re coming first. I’ll be down for the count the second you get those pretty red lips on me.”

“If you insist.” She kicked off her jeans, stepping out of them to leave her in nothing but a black lacy thong, the sight of which almost made my eyes pop out of my head.

A hot ache grew in my throat as I took her in. “Fuck, Clara. You’re even more beautiful than I remembered. I can’t believe I’m touching you again. I can’t believe you’re really here.” My hands slid across her hips before one hand slipped to the small of her back while the other caressed up her spine and cupped the back of her neck. I pulled her back into me and kissed the top of her head. “I used to dream of you, Clara,” I whispered, my breath ruffling the waves of silken blond against my neck. “There were so many nights I’d lie in bed thinking about you, wondering where you were, if you were okay, and if you missed me as much as I was missing you.”

“I did miss you.” She pulled back, her mouth curving with tenderness as she wrapped her arms around my neck and gazed up at me. “I’d cry myself to sleep sometimes over you, Nick. No one ever made me feel the way you did.” She reached for my hand on her neck and placed it in the center of her chest, over her heart. “You’re the only one who ever got in here, where it truly matters. I know that now. I’ve only ever felt like this with you.”

My chest filled with feelings I’d long since thought were gone forever. “I could fall for you again. Hell, I think I already have . . .”

Smiling to herself, she ran her hands into my hair, giving it a tug. “Kiss me.”

My thoughts filtered back to our very first kiss and the way it had felt to finally feel like I had somewhere to belong again after my dad died and my family turned to shit.

The memory remained pure, unsullied by the hurt from losing her or the passage of time as years and distance had piled up between us.

We’d started off with a sweet, spontaneous kiss at the edge of the bleachers where she’d hidden out to watch me play in my first home game as Green Valley High’s quarterback. And now, here we were, together in my home. And I couldn’t help but think that this is where we had always belonged.

I sealed my lips to hers. She was so soft with her sweet little whimpers and sexy little moans. I swallowed them down to keep with the rest of the memories of the way we used to be together. It had been years since I’d felt like this—wanted for who I really was and not for what someone wished I would be.

She was like heaven in my arms. She was everything I’d ever wanted.

How had I forgotten how this felt?

How had I managed to live without her for all this time?

I was beyond hard for her. I needed her right now more than I had ever needed anything in my entire life. The primal urge to shove inside her body and insist that she was mine—only mine, always mine—was almost impossible to fight.

My hands roamed over her ass, behind her thighs. I lifted her up, smiling when she wrapped her legs around my waist, and I felt her hot, wet heat press tight against my abs as I walked us down the hall.

My room was dark as pitch. Blindly, I reached out to flick the light on. I had to see her. I needed all my senses filled with nothing but her.

When I reached the edge of my bed, I set her down, dropped to one knee in order to slide that sexy-as-hell thong down her thighs, and licked my lips.

“Do you taste as good as I remember, baby?”

She inhaled sharply as I sank to my knees in front of her. “Nick . . .”

“That sound you always made when you come? I crave it, Clara. I need to hear it.” I raked my eyes up the length of her body, smiling when her knees went weak, and she collapsed to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Oh god.” Her voice trembled.

I took her ankles in my hands to lift her feet to the bed, spreading her legs wide as I gently encouraged her to lie on her back. Without wasting any time, I entered her with two fingers and sucked her pretty little clit into my mouth with a long, slow pull.

I licked and nibbled my way over her slick pink skin as I curved my fingers up inside to find that spot I knew would undo her, pumping them in and out until she was shoving her hips into my face and moaning out loud.

“You’ve always been my girl, haven’t you?” I removed my fingers, tapping on her swollen clit for emphasis before entering her with my tongue. She was delicious, even better than I remembered. She was nothing but salty, sweet perfection and I would never have enough of her.

“Yes, yes, yes . . . ,” she chanted as I flattened my tongue to glide it up to her clit.

I wrapped one palm around my dick and placed the other on her hip to pin her down on the mattress so I could focus on making her come. I was hard as stone, and it was becoming painful. I needed to get inside her.

With a low scream, she burst apart. Her thighs clamped on my ears as her toes curled into the mattress and she reached low to grab hold of my hair. “I want you now. Right now, Nick.”

She scooted up the bed and I fumbled in my bedside table for a condom.

My head was a mess; I wasn’t on earth anymore. I was somewhere in the clouds, surrounded by vivid memories both old and new. Being with her had always been an out-of-body experience and this moment was no exception.

I sheathed myself then crawled up her body, savoring the soft perfection of her skin as I kissed and licked my way to her mouth to take it in a searing kiss. My cock nudged her opening, and we moaned in unison at the sensation of finally being close like this again.

I slid in a couple inches, stretching her open and gasping against the smooth skin of her neck as she squeezed me tight. “You feel too good to be real, baby. I can’t believe I’m inside you again.” I took both her wrists in one hand and pushed them into the bed above her head as I sank into her inch by slow inch.

She gasped. “Oh god, I forgot how big you are. It almost hurts.”

I ground myself against her and groaned in her ear, “You can take it, baby. Just like you used to.” I was deep inside her, finally back where I’d always needed to be, and I never wanted to stop.

All I wanted to do was lose my mind, lose myself inside her, and let everything else in my life fade away until it was just the two of us again.

I slowed down and shifted back onto one arm so I could reach down between us and circle her clit with my thumb, smiling when her neck arched back, and she tightened in a rippling wave around me.

“Am I hurting you?” I paused so I could search her eyes. “I can stop, or we can slow down.”

Her head shook side to side as she wrapped her legs around my back. “No, don’t you dare stop. I love how you feel—keep going.”

I pulled out and drove back in. “Like this?”

Her throaty groan was so hot my cock pulsed inside her. “God, yes, give me more. This is unreal, like a dream. Make me feel it tomorrow, so I have no chance of ever forgetting you . . .”

I moved up to support myself on my forearms and went harder, fucking into her with rough, almost brutal strokes, making sure to grind into her clit after each thrust.

“You were made to take all of me, weren’t you? Look at us. Fuck, Clara, tell me you remember how perfectly we fit.”

“Yes, I remember. I’ve always remembered everything.”

“You were made for me. We were made for each other.”

“It’s like we’re two parts of one whole.” Her voice was a breathy moan against my neck. “Like we’ve always belonged together.” Her nails dug into my back, then slid to my ass to pull me deeper inside of her. “Please, Nick, I want more . . .”

Our foreheads pressed together as our eyes locked, and we panted into each other’s mouths, lips meeting in breathless kisses each time I sank deep.

“Nick . . . ,” she murmured. “God, Nick, I’m gonna—” She wrapped her arms around my back, pulling me closer, her legs tightening around my waist and back arching as she came around my cock in fluttering little pulses.

Heat blazed at the base of my spine, radiating through my body like a series of lightning bolts until I went over the edge with a shuddering gasp, filling the condom and wondering if I was still alive.

Like every other time I’d been with her, I’d gone out of my head, lost to the sensations only she could ever give me. She was the only woman who had ever made me lose control like this.

I lifted my head to watch her beautiful face as she regained her senses. “We’re not finished yet.” I pulled out, smiling when she gifted me with a little whine at the loss.

“I wanted to keep you inside,” she murmured. “Just for a little bit longer⁠—”

“Hush, baby, I need more. I want the sight of you undone like this embedded in my mind. Emblazoned so deep within my psyche that I’ll never forget how it feels to make you let go for me. If this is my only chance, I’m making the most of it. Spread your legs for me.”

Without hesitation she lifted her knees to her sides. I slid down her body, biting my lip as her slick wet arousal painted my abs and chest on the way. “I will never get enough of this,” I growled into her inner thigh. “I can’t believe I survived without you for this long.”

She was sensitive so I took it easy on her, soothing her with soft licks and swirls of my tongue until she planted her feet on the bed and lifted her hips, shoving her pussy in my face with a demanding moan.

“Please . . .”

I looked up the length of her body, one hand fisting the sheets, head thrashing side to side as her back arched and her rosy-tipped nipples turned into hard little peaks as she pinched one between her fingertips.

I stopped. “Look at me,” I demanded. “I need to see it happen.”

She let her legs drop to the sides and met my eyes as she rose to her elbows on the bed, watching me as I licked my lips and pressed my chin to her clit.

“My god, Nick. You’re gonna kill me tonight, aren’t you?”

I shook my head as I sucked her clit back into my mouth and moved my tongue against her with relentless little flicks until she went wild, pulling back from my mouth and bucking her hips as she shoved a hand between her legs to spread herself apart with her fingers and send herself over the edge. I watched as she flew into pieces beneath me, gorgeous and wild.

I remembered this. The two of us together and uninhibited, shamelessly exploring each other’s bodies as we learned what would drive each other crazy. We were so fucking in love back then, and had all the trust in the world.

I wanted it back—I didn’t care what I had to do to get it.

She’d trust me again. It was only a matter of time.

“Let me hold you.” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and moved up the bed to gather her in my arms.

“Mm-hmm.” Her head came to rest on my chest. She was boneless, completely relaxed against me. “You killed me. I knew it,” she mumbled into my pec. “I’m dead.”

My soft laugh ruffled her hair as it spilled across my chest. “Nah, you’ll recover. Then we’ll do it again.”

We drifted off to sleep together, waking up when the early morning light shone through my window. I’d forgotten to pull the blackout curtains closed.

She stretched, shifting in my arms to face me. “I should go home, right? It’s almost morning. We have to keep this a secret, don’t we? The kids . . .”

“Damn it. Yes. Morgan and I have an agreement⁠—”

A brief look of hurt crossed her face before she hid it. “I understand. It makes sense.” She moved to get up, but I stopped her.

“I fucking hate this. Listen to me before you go. Will you? Please.”

“I’m listening, I promise. I’m not trying to run off or escape, I⁠—”

I placed a fingertip to her lips. “I know, baby. We’re not going backward again. This isn’t a push-pull thing between us anymore, okay? I’m in this for real and I think you are too.”

“I don’t want to pull away. I don’t want to run from you anymore. But I’m not going to lie to you either. The thought of being together again freaks me out a little, Nick, and I’m not sure I’m ready to go all in just yet. Can we have a push-pause thing if I need it?”

“Absolutely. As long as we’re honest with each other, everything will be fine.”

I slipped into a pair of pajama pants and gave her one of my T-shirts to wear home. We gathered her clothes on the way to the front door, but I wasn’t ready to let her go.

I yanked her into me, banding an arm around her hips and winding my fist into her hair to bring her lips to mine. “I wish you could stay, but they’ll be home in just an hour or so . . .”

Her hands cradled my face. “It’ll be okay, baby. I’m not going anywhere.” She laughed. “I mean, I’m going home, but I’m with you, Nick. I promise.”

“Text me when you get inside.” I let go of her and opened the door, sighing when she stepped across the threshold onto the porch. It was stupid, but I felt like I was losing her all over again.

“Why does everything have to feel so right when you kiss me?” She turned back to ask.

“You know why, don’t you?”

She bit her lip and nodded.

I reached out and grabbed the back of her neck to pull her in for one more kiss. “You’re mine, Clara.”

“I think maybe I always have been.”

I watched as she crossed our yards and made it onto her porch to go inside.

The ping of my text notification made me smile as I headed back up to bed.